*     SEP  20 1910      ■■ 


Division 
Section 


.  .        SEP  20  U 

The     ^;-E 


Religio- Medical 
Masquerade 


A  Complete  Exposure  of 
Christian  Science 


FREDERICK  W.  PEABODY,  LL.B. 

OF  THE  BOSTON  BAR 


THE  HANCOCK  PRESS 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


INTRODUCTION 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  is  the  most  shallow 
and  sordid  and  wicked  imposture  of  the  ages. 
Upon  a  substratum  of  lies  a  foundation  of  false 
pretense  has  been  laid,  upon  which  has  been  built 
a  superstructure  of  outward  beauty  in  which  multi- 
tudes of  credulous  people  gather  to  glorify  the  founder 
as  God's  chief  anointed. 

Never  before  has  the  world  witnessed  a  mas- 
querade like  that  of  Christian  Science.  Being  every- 
thing that  Christianity  is  not,  it  puts  on  the  garb  of 
Christianity  and  seizes  the  name  of  Christ  the  better 
to  attract  and  the  more  strongly  to  hold  people  of 
shallow  mind,  but  sincere  heart.  Having  nothing 
in  it  remotely  worthy  of  the  name  of  science,  it 
meaninglessly  appropriates  scientific  terms  and 
phrases  in  order  to  parade  before  the  world  with  an 
air  of  learning. 

The  founder  of  this  pretended  rehgion,  this  bogus 
healing  system,  audaciously  and  irreligiously  pro- 
fessing equality  of  character  and  of  power  with 
Jesus,  has,  throughout  her  whole  long  life,  been  in 
every    particular    precisely    antithetical    to    Christ. 


6  INTRODUCTION 

Sordid,  mercenary,  unprincipled,  the  consuming 
passion  of  her  life  has  been  the  accumulation  of 
money,  and  she  has  stopped  at  no  falsehood,  no 
fraud  and  no  greater  wickedness  that  seemed  to  put 
her  in  the  way  of  adding  to  her  accumulations,  or 
overcoming  her  supposed  enemies. 

Jesus  condemned  nothing  so  forcefully  as  the 
mercenary  spirit.  With  a  whip  he  scourged  the 
money  changers  from  the  Temple,  and  in  language 
that  burned  as  flaming  fire  he  denounced  the  hypo- 
crites and  liars  of  his  time  as  "like  unto  whited 
sepulchers  that  are  indeed  beautiful  outward,  but 
within  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  all  un- 
cleanness." 

If  the  language  of  this  book  seem  severe,  if  its 
denunciations  are  emphatic,  if  things  are  called  by 
their  right  names  and  facts  handled  without  the 
least  equivocation,  if  contrasts  are  drawn  between 
the  founder  of  Christianity  and  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science  that  seem  to  border  upon  the 
irreverent,  let  it  not  be  assumed  that  there  is  in  the 
heart  of  the  author  the  slightest  particle  of  personal 
animosity,  or  in  his  attitude  toward  real  Christianity 
and  Christ  anything  but  the  most  complete  reverence. 

It  is  time  the  plain  facts  should  be  stated  in 
plain  terms,  that  the  hand  of  truth  should  ruthlessly 


INTRODUCTION  7 

tear  away  the  mask  of  falsehood  from  the  face  of 
hypocrisy  and  expose  to  the  horrified  gaze  of  man- 
kind the  hideous  hneaments  upon  which  are  indeUbly 
and  unmistakably  written  the  craft  and  insincerity 
of  utter  selfishness  and  monstrous  greed,  and  the 
hardness  of  a  cruelty  almost  unbelievable. 

Without  egotism,  I  may  say  that  no  other  man 
knows,  as  I  know,  the  true  inwardness  of  Christian 
Science,  because  no  other  man  has  come  face  to  face 
with  it  again  and  again  on  so  many  occasions  as  I 
have,  and  no  other  has  been  in  the  position  I  have 
to  force  from  the  lips  of  reluctant  witnesses,  unc^er  the 
sanction  of  an  oath,  unwilHng  and  discrediting  testi- 
mony. 

Ten  years  ago  I  knew  nothing  and  cared  less 
about  Christian  Science,  assuming  it  to  be  a  sincere, 
but  deluded,  manifestation  of  the  childish  credulity 
to  which  the  human  race  is  prone.  But  ten  years  of 
investigations  and  repeated  professional  employments, 
in  which  it  became  my  duty  as  a  lawyer  to  get  at 
the  actual  facts  with  the  aid  of  legal  process,  have 
qualified  me,  as  no  other  not  having  had  my  experi- 
ence can  be  qualified,  to  set  forth  the  amazing  story 
in  utter  nakedness.  In  order  that  it  may  appear 
that  I  am  talking  from  a  basis  of  knowledge,  and  not 
of  rumor  or  gossip   or    speculation,    let   me    briefly 


8  INTRODUCTION 

narrate  the  professional  experiences  above  re- 
ferred to. 

My  first  encounter  with  Christian  Science  came 
about  through  an  employment  by  the  Arena  Com- 
pany, pubHshers  of  the  Arena  magazine,  in  1899. 
In  the  May  number  of  the  magazine  for  that  year 
an  article  by  Mrs.  Josephine  C.  Woodbury,  that  was 
in  the  nature  of  an  expose  of  Christian  Science,  was 
published,  and  instead  of  bringing  suit  against  Mrs. 
Woodbury  or  the  magazine  for  the  statements  con- 
tained in  the  article,  an  endeavor  was  made,  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  interest,  to  suppress  the  magazine  by  a  suit 
in  equity  to  restrain  its  pubHcation  based  upon  the 
incorporation  in  the  article  of  a  photograph  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  said  to  have  been  copyrighted.  The 
Arena  Company  retained  me  to  represent  its  in- 
terests in  the  litigation,  and  during  that  employment 
I  was  brought  in  contact  with  the  author  of  the 
article,  and  from  her  got  my  first  inkling  of  the  real 
character  of  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  and  her 
religio-medical-commercial  system. 

Mrs.  Woodbury  had  been  a  Christian  Scientist 
for  many  years,  during  a  long  portion  of  which  time 
she  enjoyed  Mrs.  Eddy's  confidence  as  one  of  her 
leading  lieutenants.  She  had  accumulated  many 
letters  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  all  her  published  utter- 


INTRODUCTION  9 

ances,  whether  in  book  or  pamphlet  form,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  movement  down  to  that  time. 
Mrs.  Woodbury  was  a  woman  of  forceful,  dominating 
personality,  of  much  greater  culture  than  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  the  rank  and  file  of  her  following,  and  in  course 
of  time  she  attracted  to  herself  a  personal  popularity 
and  influence  that  so  threatened  Mrs.  Eddy's,  that 
it  became  important,  if  her  ascendency  was  to  be 
maintained  unimpaired,  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  be  cast 
into  outer  darkness  and  her  influence  wholly  destroyed. 
Occasion  was  readily  found  for  this  and,  in  due  time, 
without  warning,  without  a  notice  of  the  charges 
made  against  her,  and  without  an  opportunity  to  be 
heard,  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  excommunicated  from  the 
Boston  Christian  Science  Church  and  cut  off  from 
fellowship  with  the  faithful.  This  placed  her  in  a 
position  where  rational  reflection  was  forced  upon  her, 
and  she  speedily  came  to  the  necessary  conclusion 
that  she  had  been  duped. 

Arriving  at  this  conclusion,  with  a  courage  much 
to  be  admired  Mrs.  Woodbury  wrote  and  published 
in  the  Arena  magazine  the  article  to  which  I  have 
referred,  and  in  unmeasured  terms  laid  open  the 
sinister  and  sordid  quality  of  the  whole  movement, 
and  exposed  the  consummate  selfishness  and  greed 
in    the    heart   of   its    * 'founder."     The    article    went 


10  INTRODUCTION 

forth  in  the  Arena,  and  Christian  -  Sciencedom  was 
up  in  arms.  Mr.  Septimus  J.  Hanna,  then  editor 
of  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  Mrs.  Eddy's  organ, 
hastened  to  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  to  confer 
with  Mrs.  Eddy  regarding  ways  and  means  of  meeting 
it,  and  the  method  of  squaring  the  account  with  Mrs. 
Woodbury  was  considered  and  determined. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  article  in  the  Arena 
was  pubHshed  in  the  May,  1899,  number.  Almost 
immediately  after  the  appearance  of  the  article, 
Mrs.  Woodbury's  husband,  to  whom  she  had  been 
much  devoted,  died  and  paeans  of  rejoicing  went  up 
from  the  Christian  Scientists  that  the  Judge  of  all 
the  world  had  thus  righteously  punished  one  who 
had  dared  to  assail  the  sanctified  personality  of 
"God's  voice  to  this  age." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  opportunity  came  in  the 
month  of  June,  1899,  when,  in  her  annual  message 
to  the  "Mother  Church"  in  Boston,  she  undertook 
to  dispose  once  and  for  all  of  Mrs.  Woodbury.  In 
language,  seldom  or  never  before  equaled  for  cruelty 
and  brutality,  Mrs.  Eddy  assailed  Mrs.  Woodbury. 
Pretending,  herself,  to  be  the  woman  "clothed  with 
the  sun,"  spoken  of  in  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
Mrs.  Eddy  denounced  Mrs.  Woodbury  as  the  Baby- 
lonish  woman   there   referred   to.     She    said: 


INTRODUCTION  11 

"The  doom  of  the  Babylonish  woman  referred  to  in 
Revelation  is  being  fulfilled.  This  woman,  dmnken 
with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and  with  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  of  Jesus,  drunk  of  the  wine  of  her  fornication, 
would  enter  even  the  church  and  retaining  the  heart 
of  the  harlot  and  the  purpose  of  the  destroying  angel 
.  .  .  poison  such  as  drink  of  the  living  water."  And 
further:  "And  a  voice  was  heard  saying,  come  out  of 
her  my  people  and  hearken  not  to  her  lies  that  ye 
receive  not  her  plagues,  for  her  sins  have  reached 
unto  Heaven  and  God  hath  remembered  her  iniquities. 
Double  unto  her  double,  according  to  her  work:  in 
the  cup  which  she  hath  filled,  fill  to  her  double.  For 
she  saith  in  her  heart  I  am  no  widow.  .  .  .  Therefore 
shall  her  plague  come  in  one  day,  death,  mourning 
and  famine:  for  strong  is  the  Lord  God  who  judgeth 
her.  That  which  the  revelator  saw  in  spiritual 
vision  will  be  accomplished.  The  Babylonish  woman 
is  fallen:  and  who  shall  mourn  over  the  widowhood 
of  lust,  of  her  that  hath  become  the  habitation  of 
devils,  and  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit  and  the  cage 
of  every  unclean  bird." 

I  make  no  defense  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  absurdities 
when  she  was  a  Christian  Scientist.  She  went  the 
limit.  Nothing  could  have  exceeded  her  confidence 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  and  her  zeal  for  the  cause; 
but  I  am  absolutely  certain  that  there  was  nothing 
in  Mrs.  Woodbury's  life  in  the  slightest  degree  justify- 
ing the  reflections  upon  her  chastity,  and  Mrs.  Eddy's 


12  INTRODUCTION 

attack  was  utterly  baseless  and  wanton  and  purely 
vengeful. 

Immediately  upon  publication  of  this  message 
and  its  public  reading  in  the  "Mother  Church"  in 
Boston,  all  Christian  Scientists  recognized  the' person 
thus  assailed.  Either  from  native  shrewdness,  or  by 
advice  of  friends  or  perhaps  of  lawyers,  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  abstained  from  using  Mrs.  Woodbury's  name  in 
the  message;  but  no  Christian  Scientists  anywhere 
had  any  doubt  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  the  subject 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  attack  and,  on  every  hand,  Christian 
Scientists  openly  expressed  their  gratification  that 
Mrs.  Woodbury  had  thus  been  finally  suppressed. 
The  next  day  after  the  publication,  I  asked  a  Christian 
Scientist  with  whom  I  was  intimately  acquainted, 
whom  Mrs.  Eddy  referred  to  in  the  passage  quoted 
from  her  message.  The  unhesitating  response  was, 
"Why,  that  vile  Mrs.  Woodbury,  of  course." 

The  acquaintance,  begun  with  Mrs.  Woodbury 
through  my  employment  by  the  Arena  Company, 
developed  into  the  relationship  of  attorney  and  cHent 
after  the  pubHcation  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  message;  and  it 
was  determined  to  bring  suit  against  Mrs.  Eddy  for 
this  attack  and  against  other  Christian  Science  offi- 
cials responsible  for  its  publication.  Before  begin- 
ning, I  advised  Mrs.  Woodbury  that,  as  she  was  not 


INTRODUCTION  13 

named  in  the  article,  her  identity  at  the  trial  could 
only  be  established  by  persons  who  understood  her 
to  be  referred  to,  and  I  asked  her  if  she  believed  that 
prominent  Christian  Scientists,  who  had  openly 
avowed  such  an  understanding,  could  be  relied  upon 
to  tell  the  truth  upon  the  witness  stand.  She  assured 
me  of  her  confident  belief  that  they  could  and  that 
none  of  them  would  go  upon  the  witness  stand  and 
deliberately  commit  perjury;  but  at  the  time  of  the 
trial,  having  called  as  witnesses  only  those  close  to 
Mrs.  Eddy  who  had  made  avowal  of  their  understand- 
ing that  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  the  subject  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  attack,  none  of  them  admitted  that,  at  the 
time  of  the  publication,  they  had  any  such  under- 
standing. As  the  language  was  wholly  unintelligible 
to  any  one  but  Christian  Scientists,  the  suit  necessarily 
failed;  but  it  would  not  have  failed  if,  at  that  time, 
I  had  had  the  familiarity  I  now  have  with  Mrs. 
Eddy's  private  correspondence;  for  I  should  have 
been  able  to  introduce  in  evidence  letters  of  hers 
clearly  showing  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  the  Baby- 
lonish woman  of  her  message. 

In  the  course  of  the  preparation  for  the  trial  of 
this  case,  all  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  letters  from  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  all  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  pubHshed  utterances 
from   the   beginning   down   to   that   time,   including 


14  INTRODUCTION 

every  edition  of  her  book,  "Science  and  Health," 
and  every  number  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
were  turned  over  to  me  by  my  cHent  and  studied 
with  most  thorough  and  painstaking  care.  Then  it 
was  I  learned  that  Christian  Science  was  a  deliberate 
fraud  foisted  upon  mankind  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the 
name  of  religion  for  the  mere  purpose  of  extorting 
money  from  credulous  people.  Since  that  time  I 
have  been  intensely  interested  in  following  the  matter 
up  and  adding  to  my  store  of  facts,  until  now  I  am 
confident  that  no  man  can  read  this  book,  no  man 
and  no  woman  who  has  not  parted  with  every  scrap 
of  sanity  and  who  retains  elemental  decency  in  his 
or  her  heart,  and  not  be  in  entire  accord  with  my 
conclusions. 

Some  time  after  the  Woodbury-Eddy  litigation, 
I  was  retained  by  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage,  then  of 
New  York  City,  to  collect  for  him,  and  at  his  expense, 
in  legally  evidential  form,  the  facts  showing  unmis- 
takably Mrs.  Eddy's  false  pretense  and  fraud,  and 
in  pursuance  of  this  employment  I  examined  numerous 
individuals  and  took  their  statements  under  oath  for 
Mr.  Savage.  Later,  when  McClure's  magazine  under- 
took the  pubHcation  of  the  facts  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
career,  I  was  employed  to  procure  the  sworn  state- 
ments of  many  individuals  in  support  of  the  maga- 


INTRODUCTION  15 

fine's  story,  and  shortly  thereafter  I  was  retained 
by  Mrs.  Eddy's  two  sons,  George  W.  Glover,  born  to 
her  by  her  first  husband,  and  Edward  J.  Foster,  her 
son  by  adoption,  to  cooperate  with  their  other 
lawyers,  Hon.  William  E.  Chandler,  Ex-United  States 
Senator  from  New  Hampshire  being  senior  counsel, 
in  the  prosecution  in  the  courts  of  New  Hampshire 
of  a  suit  in  equity  for  the  appointment  of  a  receiver 
to  have  charge  of  their  mother's  large  estate  for  her 
benefit,  upon  the  ground  that,  through  old  age 
mental  weakness  and  delusions,  if  not  actual  insanity, 
she  was  incompetent  to  have  the  care  of  it.  This 
litigation  never  reached  a  determination  in  the 
courts,  but  the  family  controversy  was  ultimately 
settled  by  a  family  settlement  in  which  the  two 
sons  were  paid  approximately  $300,000  for  a  relin- 
quishment of  their  prospective  interest  in  their 
mother's  estate  and  an  agreement  not  to  contest 
any  will  or  other  instrument  disposing  of  her 
property. 

As  the  Massachusetts  attorney  in  this  litigation, 
it  became  my  duty  in  the  City  of  Boston  to  examine , 
under  oath,  many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  most  intimate 
friends,  and  the  highest  officials  of  organized  Chris- 
tian Science,  who,  by  legal  process,  were  compelled 
to  produce  many  hundreds  of  personal  letters  received 


16  INTRODUCTION 

by  them  from  her.  This  last  professional  experience 
completed  my  understanding  of  Christian  Science, 
and  the  facts  herein  set  forth  are,  almost  without 
exception,  based,  either  upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  pub- 
Hshed  utterances,  her  private  correspondence,  the 
sworn  testimony  of  witnesses,  or  the  admissions  under 
oath  of  her  most  confidential  friends  and  followers; 
and  I  give  my  book  to  the  world  with  a  full  under- 
standing of  the  responsibility  I  assume  and  a  com- 
plete wilHngness  to  justify  in  any  legal  tribunal 
every  statement  I  make. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  I  am  pre- 
senting the  spectacle  of  a  cowardly  man  attacking  a 
weak  and  unprotected  woman.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the 
head  and  front  of  a  powerful  and  rich  organization, 
the  leader  of  a  movement  that  numbers  many  thou- 
sands of  adherents,  amongst  them  some  thousands 
of  more  or  less  masculine  men.  She  is  Christian 
Science,  and  Christian  Science  is  Mrs.  Eddy.  Any- 
thing that  money  can  buy  or  fanaticism  give  is  con- 
stantly at  her  disposal,  and  back  of  her,  as  behind 
the  greatest  and  the  humblest,  stands  the  sovereign 
law.  Whoever  offends  another,  is  accountable  to  the 
law;  and  if  anything  I  say  offend  against  her  right 
to  enjoy  the  reputation  warranted  by  her  Hfe,  I  can 
and  should  be  called  to  speedy  and  strict  account. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

If  the  contents  of  this  book  are  not  true,  I,  myself, 
proclaim  that  the  severest  legal  penalty  would  in- 
adequately punish  me  for  its  publication.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  what  I  say  be  true,  as  I  am  confident 
there  can  be  no  doubt  in  any  honest  mind  that  follows 
me  to  the  end,  then  decent  people,  men  or  women, 
can  no  longer  afford  to  give  the  slightest  countenance 
to  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  and  her  impostures,  be  they 
called  by  the  name  of  religion,  or  be  they  pretended 
cure-alls  for  the  ills  to  which  our  human  flesh  is 
heir. 

I  challenge  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  whole  Christian 
Science  combination  to  dare  to  prosecute  me  for 
libel,  and  I  affirm  and  shall  continue  to  affirm  that 
their  omission  so  to  do  is  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  truth  of  every  statement  I  make.  She  knows 
I  am  telling  nothing  but  the  truth,  and  that  the  whole 
truth,  to  be  brought  out  upon  a  judicial  investigation, 
would  be  more  damning  than  the  truth  as  I  have 
presented  it.  The  whole  truth  cannot  be  told  out- 
side of  a  judicial  tribunal. 

In  presenting  the  substance  of  this  book  in  the 
form  of  a  lecture  to  the  people  of  the  ccTuntry,  from 
one  ocean  to  the  other,  the  only  response  has  been 
slander  and  defamation  of  me,  the  last  resort  of  the 
accused  who  can  make  no  defense;  but  nobody  has 


18  INTRODUCTION 

met  my  facts  with  anything  Hke  evidence,  or  under- 
taken in  any  serious  manner  to  disprove  the  truth 
of  my  most  damaging  charges. 

I  beg  every  one  who  reads  this  book  not  to  be 
diverted  from  the  facts  by  any  personal  abuse  of  me 
that  may  follow  its  publication.  It  is  the  only 
response  that  has  been  or  can  be  made  to  my  pres- 
entation, and  I  am  accustomed  to  it  from  the  paid 
spokesmen  of  a  cult  that,  so  far  as  its  ruling  spirits 
are  concerned,  more  resembles  an  organization  of 
outlaws  banded  together  for  plunder,  than  a  religious 
establishment  based  upon  the  sublime  teachings  of 
the  Man  of  Sorrows. 

The  knowledge  I  possess  I  could  not  suppress 
without  making  myself  a  party  to  one  of  the  greatest 
crimes  ever  perpetrated  against  the  human  race; 
and  I  will  not,  by  my  silence,  permit  myself  to 
become  an  ally  with  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  associates 
in  that  crime. 

History  is  but  repeated  in  Christian  Science. 
*'We  have  seen,"  said  Macaulay,  "an  old  woman 
with  no  talents  beyond  the  cunning  of  a  fortune 
teller,  and  with  the  education  of  a  scullion,  exalted 
into  a  prophetess  and  surrounded  by  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  devoted  followers,  many  of  whom  were,  in 
station    and    in    knowledge,    immeasurably   her   su- 


INTRODUCTION  19 

periods,  and  all  this  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
all  this  in  London." 

Marveling  as  he  thus  did  at  the  success  of  Joanna 
Southcott's  parody  upon  religion  in  the  early  part  of 
the  last  century,  what  would  Macaulay  have  thought 
of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy's  utterly  unintelligible  hodge- 
podge, which  she  falsely  calls  both  a  discovery  and  a 
revelation,  a  science  and  a  rehgion,  and  what  would 
he  have  thought  of  her  following  ? 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  in  no  respect  superior  to  Miss  South- 
cott  in  the  matter  of  origin  and  education.  One 
was  as  obscure  and  as  unlearned  as  the  other.  In 
one  respect  at  least  the  Southcott  woman  was  superior 
to  the  Eddy  woman.  The  former  was  at  least  honest ; 
she  believed  in  her  mission.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  she  built  up  a  pretended  religion  upon  a  founda- 
tion of  lies.  She  was,  at  the  worst,  an  unbalanced 
creature  with  a  form  of  religious  mania.  She  did 
not  grow  rich  out  of  her  followers.  She  did  not 
use  her  supposed  revelation  as  a  business  asset  and 
sell  it  for  what  it  would  bring.  She  did  not  take 
out  a  copyright  on  her  "rehgion,"  and  monopolize 
its  sale  for  extraordinary  profit.  There  was  no 
taint  of  commercialism  about  her  frenzies.  She 
died  poor. 

The  founder  of  Christian  Science,  on  the  contrary, 


20  INTRODUCTION 

is  everything  that  Joanna  Southcott  was  not.  She 
is  mercenary,  insincere,  shameless,  and  bold  to  a 
degree  surpassing  that  of  all  other  persons  who  have 
duped  mankind.  Upon  theft  and  falsehood  she  has 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  "religion"  by  the  sale  of 
which  she  has  accumulated  a  fortune. 

F.  W.  P. 


The  Religio-Medical 
Masquerade 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Sacrifice  of  Children 

AT  the  very  outset  of  a  candid  consideration  of 
Christian  Science,  I  feel  the  necessity,  if  not 
of  an  apology,  at  least  of  an  explanation.  I  shall 
with  entire  freedom  discuss  a  woman  and  a  combined 
religio-medical-commercial  system  of  which  she  is 
the  founder.  I  shall  handle  the  one  and  the  other 
without  the  least  regard  for  anything  but  the  truth. 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  is  the  woman,  and  Christian 
Science,  so  called,  is  the  system;  but  they  are  in- 
separable, identical.  They  have  arisen  and  they 
will  go  down  together,  and  I  predict  that  they  will 
go  down  much  more  rapidly  than  they  have  ascended. 
I  am  going  to  hold  up  for  the  inspection  of  man- 
kind the  soul  of  a  woman,  of  a  woman  eighty-eight 
years  of  age,  and  I  am  going  to  do  it  without  regard 
to  the  fact  that  she  is  feminine  and  aged.  There  is 
no  other  way  to  present  Christian  Science  in  its  true 
aspect.  It  rests  exclusively  upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  repre- 
sentations   and    Mrs.    Eddy's    character.     If    every- 

21 


22  THE  RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

thing  she  has  claimed  regarding  herself  and  Christian 
Science  as  a  religion  and  healing  system  be  absolutely 
false,  then  there  is  no  justification  for  the  existence 
of  Christian  Science  as  a  religion,  or  a  healing  system, 
every  church  erected  in  its  honor  is  but  a  monument 
to  the  "Queen  of  frauds  and  hypocrites,"  and  every 
worshiper  at  its  shrines  the  dupe  of  a  designing  old 
woman  who  has  laughed  in  her  sleeves  at  the  ease 
with  which  she  has  gulled  them. 

While  this  is  unmistakably  true,  it  is,  nothwith- 
standing,  most  distasteful  to  a  man,  if  he  be  half  a 
man,  publicly  to  assail  the  character  of  a  woman, 
and  nothing  under  heaven  can  justify  it,  if  she  be 
in  private  life  and  not  putting  forth  nor  seeking  to 
put  forth  an  influence  upon  the  lives  of  others;  but 
if  she  have  constituted  herself  sponsor  for  a  religion 
of  lies  and  a  medical  system  that  is  a  fraud  and  a 
shame,  if  she  profess  God  imparted  knowledge  of 
everything  needful  for  human  bodies  and  souls,  if 
she  reach  out  her  influence  to  all  parts  of  the  land 
and  seek  to  govern  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people 
in  every  detail  of  their  daily  lives,  and  if  her  influence 
be  harmful  and  only  harmful,  it  is  the  duty  of  a 
man,  who  knows  the  facts,  to  make  them  pubHc, 
regardless  of  sex  or  age  or  anything  whatever  but 
the  public  good.  And  so  I  ask  my  readers  to  believe 
that  while  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  feeble  and  palsied  old 
woman  tottering  on  the  very  verge  of  the  grave,  I 
have  feelings  only  of  compassion;  for  Mrs.  Eddy, 
the  charlatan  and  adventuress,  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  the 
impious  pretender  to  equality  with  Jesus,  the  fraudu- 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHILDREN  23 

lent  claimant  of  exclusive  and  immediate  revelation 
from  God,  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  upon  whose  altar  of  greed 
have  been  sacrificed  the  harmony  and  happiness  of 
marriage,  the  natural  love  and  tenderness  of  parents 
and  the  sweet  lives  of  God  only  knows  how  many  chil- 
dren, for  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  heartless  and  avaricious 
despot  of  multitudes  of  despoiled  and  demented 
dupes,  for  that  woman,  as  there  is  no  sympathy  in 
my  heart,  so  there  shall  be  no  charity  in  my  speech. 

Now,  who  is  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  what  is  this  strange 
thing  called  Christian  Science  ? 

As  I  understand  her,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  inventor 
and  sole  proprietor  of  the  greatest  get-rich-quick 
concern  ever  conceived.  Her  business  —  there  is  no 
religion  about  it,  and  her  writings  may  be  searched 
from  end  to  end  without  finding  a  line  about  the 
worship  of  God  —  her  business  converts  into  cash 
the  very  highest  emotions  of  the  human  soul  by  an 
appeal  to  rehgious  feeling  and  extorts  huge  sums  of 
money  from  multitudes  of  credulous  people  for  heal- 
ing them  of  nothing  but  the  delusion  that  there  is 
something  the  matter  with  them.  Christian  Science 
never  cured  any  one  of  anything  but  imaginary 
illness;  it  never  relieved  any  one  of  any  real  evil— 
but  his  money. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  boldly  professing  to  have  received  a 
revelation  from  God,  and  to  be  the  equal  of  Jesus 
Christ,  has  made  upwards  of  a  million  and  a  half 
dollars  out  of  her  enterprise  that  she  calls  Christian 
Science  since  she  reached  sixty  years  of  age;  and,  if 
some  be  inclined  to  infer  therefrom  the  possession 


24  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

by  her  of  extraordinary  genius,  I  cannot  agree  with 
them.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  succeeded,  not  because  of  her 
greatness,  but  because  of  the  avidity  with  which 
unreasoning  people  swallow  the  most  monstrous 
absurdities,  the  shamelessness  with  which  men  and 
women  will  intellectually  prostrate  themselves 
before  the  coarsest  vulgarity  and  the  most  patent 
fraud. 

Let  me  illustrate  this,  if  I  can.  It  is  no  part  of 
my  undertaking  to  account  for  Mrs.  Eddy's  following. 
The  fact  that  she  has  some  thousands  of  followers 
does  not,  of  itself,  prove  the  truth  of  any  of  her  teach- 
ings or  pretensions.  There  was  never  any  rehgious 
pretender  yet,  who  could  not,  with  slight  effort,  ob- 
tain a  hearing  and  a  following.  I  recently  observed, 
in  one  of  our  daily  papers,  an  account  of  an  amusing 
incident  of  this  character  in  Oklahoma.  A  man, 
believing  himself  to  be  the  incarnation  of  Almighty 
God,  started  out  to  convert  the  world  to  his  belief, 
and  considered  it  to  be  his  mission,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  persuade  mankind  to  divest  themselves 
of  clothes.  The  first  man  he  encountered  was  his 
next-door  neighbor  and  the  first  woman  his  next- 
door  neighbor's  wife,  and  they  were  easily  persuaded 
of  the  man's  divine  mission,  and  that  it  was  God's 
wish  that  they  should  revert  to  primitive  nakedness. 
So  the  three  doffed  the  attire  of  civilization  and  per- 
ambulated into  the  adjoining  town,  naked  as  they 
came  into  the  world.  A  police  officer,  who  en- 
countered them  upon  the  street,  with  averted  eyes 
hustled  them  into  a  van  and  carted  them  off  to  the 


THE    SACRIFICE    OF    CHILDREN  25 

nearest  police  station,  where  they  were  compelled  to 
assume  at  least  the  outward  garb  of  decency  and 
sanity.  This  only  shows  how  true  it  is  that  the 
religious  impostor  has  no  difficulty  in  making  con- 
verts, and  that  the  first  person  he  converts  is  usually 
the  first  he  encounters. 

I  am  continually  met  with  the  inquiry,  "If 
Christian  Science  is  an  absolute  fraud,  how  do  you 
account  for  the  fact  that  so  many  intelligent  people 
are  Christian  Scientists?" 

In  the  first  place,  many  people  may  be  intelUgent 
enough  about  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  and  utterly 
imbecile  upon  religious  matters.  History  has  again 
and  again  shown  that  in  no  respect  are  people  so 
easily  credulous  and  so  readily  victimized  as  in  respect 
to  religious  things.  Doubtless  there  are  intelHgent 
people  in  Christian  Science ;  but  the  whole  cult  is  not' 
numerous,  and  the  intelligent  minority  is  a  negligible 
quantity. 

In  the  latest  bulletin  of  religious  statistics, 
pubHshed  by  the  Federal  Government  in  1909,  the 
total  number  of  Christian  Scientists  is  given  as 
85,717;  but  it  is  stated  that  a  large  portion,  at  least 
half,  of  the  membership  of  the  "Mother  Church"  in 
Boston  is  counted  twice  in  this  estimate;  for  the 
41,634  membership  of  this  Boston  church  is  largely 
composed  of  non-residents,  who  are  also  members  of 
other  churches.  So  at  least  20,000  must  be  de- 
ducted from  the  total  of  85,717  in  order  to  get  at 
anything  like  an  accurate  estimate,  which  cannot  be 
far  from  65,000.     These  are  the  government's  figures 


26  THE     RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

for  1906,  although  Mrs.  Eddy  definitely  stated  that 
there  were  a  million  Christian  Scientists  as  long  ago 
as  1883. 

Now,  admitting  that  amongst  this  65,000  people 
there  are  intelligent  persons,  I  make  the  affirmation 
boldly  that  not  one  of  them  ever  went  into  Christian 
Science  because  of  his  intelligence  but  notwithstand- 
ing and  in  spite  of  it.  Let  me  make  plain  this  non- 
intelligent  attitude  of  its  devotees  toward  Christian 
Science. 

The  religious  service  in  a  Christian  Science  church 
contains  no  original  utterance  from  the  pulpit.  There 
is  no  preacher  connected  with  any  Christian  Science 
church,  and  the  individuals  officiating  from  the 
platform  are  called  readers,  the  first  reader  being  a 
man,  who  reads  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  and  the 
second  reader  being  a  woman,  who  reads  from  the 
Bible.  The  sermon  consists  exclusively  of  the 
alternate  reading,  by  the  second  reader  of  passages 
from  the  Bible,  and  by  the  first  reader  of  alleged 
interpretative  passages  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book, 
"Science  and  Health,"  which  is  called  by  her,  "The 
Key  to  the  Scriptures." 

Mr.  Arthur  G.  Frisbie  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  an 
absolutely  sincere  and  honest  man,  was  for  many 
years  the  first  reader  of  the  leading  Christian  Science 
church  in  that  city.  He  became,  however,  con- 
vinced, as  every  sincere  and  honest  person,  who  re- 
tains any  remnant  of  analytical  power  sooner  or 
later  must,  that  the  thing  was  a  monstrous  fraud, 
and  he  now  denounces  it  in  no  less  unmeasured  terms 


THE    SACRIFICE    OF    CHILDREN  27 

than  my  own.     Mr.  Frisbie  teljs  me  that  during  all 
the   time   he   was  officiating   as   first   reader  in   the 
church  and  read  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  try  as  hard 
as  he  might  he  could  discover  no  slightest  relation 
between    the    Bible    passages    read    by    the    second 
reader  and  the  "Science  and  Health"  interpretative 
passages  read    by    himself.      Any  one  who  cares  to 
make  the  experiment  may  demonstrate  this  for  him- 
self if  he  will  get  a  copy  of  the  Christian   Science 
Quarterly  in  which  the  so-called  Sermon  Lessons  are 
outlined.     Such   a  test  will   show  that  there  is  no 
more  connection  between  the  Biblical  passages  and 
those  selected  and  read  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  than 
there  would  be  if  "Mother  Goose  "or  "Robinson  Crusoe" 
were   used   as   interpreters   of  the   Scriptures.     And 
yet  I  have  sat  in  a  Christian  Science  church  and  seen 
thousands   of   the   faithful,  with   nothing   less   than 
ecstatic  expressions  upon  their  countenances,  listening 
to  readings  that  were  absolutely  unintelligible  to  both 
readers  and  hearers.     So  I  say  that  the  only  possible 
way  to  be  a  Christian  Scientist  is  to  completely  sub- 
ordinate intelligence  to  feeling  and  approximate  as 
nearly   as  possible   the   ideal  condition  pictured  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  when  she  says,  "The  less  mind  there  is 
manifested  in  matter,  the  better." 

Before  passing  from  this  point,  I  can't  refrain 
from  incorporating  here,  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
the  sage  summary  of  a  man  whom  I  regard  as  the 
very  wisest  of  living  estimators  of  human  qualities. 
I  refer,  of  course,  to  Mark  Twain.  His  opinion  of 
why  Mrs.  Eddy  has  so  many  followers  is  most   in- 


28  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

forming.      In  a  letter  to  me  some   few    years    ago, 
Mr.  Clemens  said: 

"Have  I  given  you  the  impression  that  I  was  com- 
bating Xn  Science  ?  or  that  I  am  caring  how  the  Xn 
Scientists  'hail'  my  articles?  Relieve  3^ourself  of  those 
errors.  I  wrote  the  articles  to  please  MYSELF ;  and  it 
had  not  occurred  to  me  to  care  what  the  *  Scientists ' 
might  think  of  them.  I  am  not  combating  Xn 
Science  —  I  haven't  a  thing  in  the  world  against  it. 
Making  fun  of  that  shameless  old  swindler,  Mother 
Eddy,  is  the  onl}^  thing  about  it  I  take  any  interest  in. 
At  bottom  I  suppose  I  take  a  private  delight  in  seeing 
the  human  race  making  an  ass  of  itself  again  —  which 
it  has  always  done  whenever  it  had  a  chance.  That's 
its  affair — it  has  the  right — and  it  will  sweat  blood 
for  it  a  century  hence,  and  for  many  centuries  there- 
after. 

"It  distresses  me  a  little  to  hear  you  talk  about 
'sanity  in  the  affairs  of  men.'  So  far  as  I  know,  men 
have  never  shown  any  noticeable  degree  of  sanity  in 
their  affairs,  and  to  me  it  seems  rather  large  flattery 
to  intimate  that  they  are  capable  of  it. 

"See  them  get  down  and  worship  that  old  creature. 
A  century  hence,  they'll  all  be  at  it.  Sanity — in  the 
human  race!     This  is  really  fulsome." 

There  is  no  other  possible  explanation  than  this 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  success.  It  is  based,  as  Mark  Twain 
says,  upon  the  irresistible  propensity  of  the  human 
race  -to  make  an  ass  of  itself  every  time  it  gets  a 
chance.  It  is  astounding,  but  it  is  a  fact,  that  by 
many  thousands  of  people  in  the  United  States  in 
the  year  of  grace  1910  this  aged,  illiterate,  unprin- 
cipled, vulgar  woman  is  regarded  as  the  agent  and 


THE  SACRIFICE   OF  CHILDREN  29 

representative  of  the  Almighty  God.  I  do  not  know- 
how  many  times  I  have  been  told  that  because  I 
have  endeavored  to  make  the  people  of  the  country 
understand  that  Christian  Science  is  based  wholly 
upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  falsehoods,  I  am  therefore  irrever- 
ently assailing  the  Almighty  upon  His  throne.  I 
confess  I  am  not  much  disturbed  by  this  particular 
criticism,  because  I  feel  that,  if  it  be  a  fact,  the  Al- 
mighty will  deal  with  me  indulgently,  knowing  the 
integrity  of  my  motives,  and  that,  however  aggressive 
I  may  become,  the  Almighty  is  in  no  danger. 

The  more  I  have  studied  and  learned  of  the  life 
of  this  strange  creature  and  the  more  closely  I  have 
observed  her  effect  upon  the  lives  of  those  who 
come  under  her  sway,  the  more  strongly  I  am  con- 
vinced of  the  harmfulness  of  her  influence.  It  is 
literally  derationalizing  thousands  of  people,  it  is 
turning  multitudes  from  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
and  steeping  them  in  a  superstition  worse  than  that 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  remorselessly  separating 
husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child.  It  is  the 
mother  and  promoter  of  a  new-old  witchcraft  which 
has  so  taken  possession  of  the  minds  and  lives  of 
people  that  they  live  in  constant  terror  of  its  sup- 
posed baneful  work.  This  Christian  Science  witch- 
craft has  reached  the  proportion  amongst  the  faithful 
almost  of  panic,  and  of  it  more  hereafter.  But  of 
all  of  the  harmful  influences  of  this  alleged  medical 
science,  which  is  an  unmitigated  nonsense  or  deviltry, 
and  of  this  alleged  religion  which,  so  far  as  its  founder 
is  concerned,  is  the  very  quintessence  of  irreverence 


30  THE   RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

and  hypocrisy,  of  all  of  the  evil  consequences  of  the 
life  and  work  of  this  monumental  imposture,  the 
unrelieved  suffering  of  helpless  children  is  the  worst. 

Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  and  her  followers  believe  that 
God  has  revealed  to  her,  as  absolute  truth,  that  sick- 
ness, pain  and  suffering  do  not  in  reality  exist,  and 
many  are  the  deluded  mothers  upon  whom  this 
belief  has  taken  so  fast  a  hold  that  they  permit  their 
helpless  children  to  suffer  and  to  die  without  the 
slightest  effort  to  alleviate  the  suffering,  and  with 
the  continued  iteration  and  reiteration  of  the  insane 
notion  that  the  child  cannot  be  sick  and  cannot  suffer, 
because  sickness  and  suffering  are  unreal.  Mean- 
time the  sickness  of  the  child  is  real,  the  suffering 
terribly  real,  and  after  protracted  suffering  it  dies 
without  the  turning  of  a  hand  to  relieve  its  pain  or 
to  save  its  life.  Those  sane  parents  who  have  en- 
dured the  anguish  of  seeing  their  child  suffer,  say 
from  abscess  in  the  ear,  or  from  any  one  of  the  other 
forms  of  torture  with  which  nature  stretches  our 
little  ones  upon  beds  of  pain,  will  appreciate  the 
enormity  of  this  crime. 

I  recently  talked  with  a  lady  who  had  been 
visiting  her  Christian  Science  sister  whose  little  boy, 
eight  or  ten  years  of  age,  became  sick  during  my 
friend's  visit.  He  went  to  his  mother  and  said, 
"Mother,  I  have  a  terrible  pain  and  feel  very  sick, 
and  think  I  ought  to  have   a  doctor." 

What  did  the  Christian  Science  mother  do?  Did 
she  coddle  the  little  fellow,  take  off  his  clothes  and 
put  him  to  bed  and  tell  him  the  good  doctor  would 


THE   SACRIFICE   OF   CHILDREN  31 

soon  be  there  and  that  he  would  be  all  well  again  very 
shortly?  Nothing  of  the  kind.  "Richard,"  she  said, 
"it  is  very  wrong  of  you  to  talk  that  way,  when  you 
have  that  error  of  belief.  You  know  you  are  not  sick, 
Richard,  and  cannot  be  sick;  you  know  how  to  treat 
yourself  when  you  have  that  false  belief.  Treat  your- 
self, run  away  and  play,  and  don't  bother  me  any 
more." 

Little  Richard  turned  from  his  Christian  Science 
mother  and  resumed  his  play,  so  long  as  he  could 
stagger  about  on  his  little  feet  and  keep  up  the  sad 
pretense.  And  when  he  could  not  keep  on  his  feet 
any  longer,  he  sat  down  upon  the  floor  with  his  toys 
about  him,  moaning  with  pain  and  holding  his  hand 
upon  his  side.  Meantime  his  Christian  Science 
mother  busied  herself  about  her  family  duties,  totally 
ignoring  him. 

The  time  came  when  Httle  Richard  could  not  any 
longer  sit  up  and  completely  lost  interest  in  his  toys; 
and  then  he  fell  over  upon  the  floor,  and  died  —  died 
with  his  clothes  on,  died  with  his  toys  about  him, 
died  absolutely  neglected  by  his  mother  in  his 
extremity,  died  without  the  slightest  sane  endeavor 
to  save  his  life. 

And  so  it  is  everywhere  in  Christian  Science 
families  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this 
land.  Nothing  but  the  employment  of  a  fool-man 
or  a  fool-woman,  called  a  Christian  Science  healer, 
to  administer  a  Christian  Science  treatment,  which 
consists  only  of  the  inaudible  repetition  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  meaningless  jargon,  can  be  done  by  a  Christian 


32  THE   RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

Science  parent  to  save  the  life  of  his  child  without 
repudiating  Mrs.  Eddy's  fundamental  teaching  that 
sickness  is  unreal  and  giving  the  lie  to  her  "inspired" 
insanity  that  there  are  no  such  things  as  pain  and 
death. 

Who  has  not,  for  years  past,  read  such  items  as 
these  in  the  daily  papers?  "Christian  Science 
parent  arrested.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Goodwin's  twelve 
years'  old  child  died  without  medical  attendance." 

Again:  "Jail  term  for  Christian  Scientist  Brine, 
who  let  his  six-year-old  child  die  without  medical 
attendance." 

Again:  "No  medicine  for  dying  boy.  Public 
prosecutor  to  take  up  case  of  year-old  son  of  Frank 
A.  Black,  who  died  on  Saturday  without  medical 
attendance." 

Again:  "Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edwin  M.  Watson,  Chris- 
tian Scientists,  convicted  of  voluntary  manslaughter 
for  failure  to  provide  medical  attendance  for  their 
seven-year-old  child,  Granville." 

Again:  "Little  Esther  Quimby,  the  seven-year- 
old  daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Quimby,  Christian 
Scientists,  allowed  to  die  of  malignant  diphtheria 
without   attendence  of  a  doctor." 

There  was  in  this  country  in  the  neighborhood 
of  5,000  advertising  Christian  Science  healers,  so 
called,  and  their  patients  are  largely  women  and 
children.  If  each  of  them  has  but  one  patient  a 
day,  there  are  over  a  million  and  a  half  lives  annually 
placed  under  their  senseless  and  impotent  minis- 
trations.    As    they    doubtless    average    many    more 


THE   SACRIFICE   OF   CHILDREN  33 

than  one  a  day,  their  patients  are  in  the  aggregate 
many  millions  a  year,  largely  women,  still  more 
largely  children.  There  are  no  statistics  showing 
the  mortality  of  such  patients,  for  it  is  the  practice 
of  these  healers  to  conceal  their  operations  by  calling 
in  a  physician  at  the  last  moment  to  qualify  him  to 
give  the  necessary  death  certificate,  in  order  that 
there  may  be  no  investigation  of  their  criminal 
practices.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  however,  that  the 
sacrifice  of  child  life  to  this  stupid  and  cruel  monster 
runs  up  into  the  hundreds,  if  not  the  thousands, 
annually.     Could  anything  be  more  hideous? 

But  what,  may  I  ask,  does  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy 
care  about  the  sacrifice  of  children,  so  only  that  her 
bank  account  continue  to  grow  and  grow  and  grow  ? 

Her  concern  for  children  generally  may  be  some- 
what judged  by  her  regard  for  the  only  child  she 
ever  brought  into  the  world.  Mrs.  Eddy,  when  she 
was  Mrs.  Glover,  in  September,  1844,  gave  birth  to 
her  only  child,  a  son,  whom  she  named  after  his 
father,  George  Washington  Glover.  As  a  young 
infant,  George  lived  at  his  aunt's  house  with  his 
mother,  who,  however,  frequently  sent  him  on  long 
visits  to  the  family  of  John  Varney,  the  hired  man 
(in  whose  lap  it  was  her  custom,  when  a  young  widow, 
to  be  rocked  to  sleep  at  night),  and  also  to  Mahala 
Sanborn,  who  had  attended  her  at  the  boy's  birth. 

When  he  was  seven  years  old.  Miss  Sanborn,  who 
had  become  Mrs.  Cheeney,  took  him,  at  his  mother's 
request,  permanently  to  live  with  her  in  North 
Groton,  New  Hampshire,  where  he  was  from  1851  to 


34  THE  RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

1857,  when  the  Cheeneys  moved  to  Enterprise,  Minne- 
sota, taking  George  with  them.  During  the  larger  part 
of  his  Hfe  in  North  Groton,  Mrs.  Eddy  Hved  in  the  same 
town,  but  she  seldom  saw  him,  and  did  nothing  for 
him.  She  abandoned  him,  in  other  words,  to  an 
entirely  illiterate  person  who  had  lived  as  a  servant 
in  her  father's  family.  As  her  father  said,  she  acted 
"just  like  an  old  ewe  sheep  that  would  not  own  its 
lamb." 

Mrs.  Eddy  now  pretends  that  she  was  obliged  to 
give  up  her  child  because  her  second  husband, 
Patterson,  would  not  have  him  in  the  house.  This 
seems  to  me  a  poor  reason  for  a  woman  to  abandon 
her  infant  child,  but  it  is  not  true  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
case,  because  she  did  not  acquire  Mr.  Patterson  until 
years  after  she  had  permanently  abandoned  her  child. 
So  complete  was  her  neglect,  so  utter  her  abandon- 
ment of  him  that  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  this  man, 
born  of  New  England  parents,  can  neither  read  nor 
write!  A  mother  who  is  so  unmotherly  as  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  toward  her  only  child  when  it  was  little 
more  than  a  baby,  cannot  be  expected  to  give  her- 
self great  concern  over  the  sacrifice  of  the  children 
of  strangers  that  is  incidental  to  the  accumulation 
of  her  fortune. 

If  the  adult  prefer  foolishness  to  wisdom,  if  he 
prefer  suicide  to  life,  by  the  Christian  Science  or  any 
other  method,  he  may  enjoy  his  preference.  It  is 
no  business  of  mine  to  come  between  him  and  the 
grave;  but  no  man  and  no  woman  has  any  right, 
whatever  be   the    motive   or  the   relation,   to   stand 


THE  SACRIFICE   OF  CHILDREN  35 

silently  by  and  permit  a  child  needlessly  to  suffer 
and  needlessly  to  die.  The  laws  of  the  land  should 
provide,  as  they  do  in  some  States,  for  the  punish- 
ment of  such  cruel  offences;  and  to  the  extent  that 
my  opposition  and  my  protest  may  avail,  no  man  and 
no  woman  shall  be  permitted  to  murder  little  chil- 
dren by  a  wilful  neglect  that  is  based  upon  an  insane 
belief  in  the  wicked  teachings  of  a  wicked  woman, 
in  her  cruel,  greedy  fraud,  in  her  brazen,  murderous 
lies. 

If  any  one  be  disposed  to  feel  that  my  language 
sounds  extravagant  thus  early  in  the  narrative,  I 
beg  that  judgment  may  be  suspended  until  I  have 
concluded,  when  the  moderation  of  my  speech  will, 
I  think,  be  cause  for  wonder. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Detached  Heart 

MARY  BAKER  GLOVER  EDDY  was  born  in 
the  town  of  Bow,  New  Hampshire,  on  July  16, 
1821,  of  good  New  England  parentage;  but  never  re- 
ceived anything  but  the  most  rudimentary  education. 
The  stories  of  her  higher  education  are  all  fables.  She 
pretends  to  have  studied  the  classic  languages,  and 
to  have  been  familiar  with  Hebrew.  She  has  never 
known  anything  of  any  of  these  languages,  and  any 
one  who  has  been  compelled,  as  I  have,  to  peruse 
her  unedited  personal  correspondence  knows  that 
she  has  never  been  on  any,  but  the  most  distant  of 
speaking  terms,  with  her  mother  tongue.  She  was 
graduated,  she  says,  from  Dyer  H.  Sanborn's  Acad- 
emy at  Tilton,  New  Hampshire;  but  her  old  school- 
mates, still  living,  say  there  was  no  such  academy, 
although  Sanborn  did  teach  a  few  children  each  year 
in  a  room  over  the  district  school.  There  was  no 
regular  course  of  study  and  were  no  graduations. 
According  to  these  same  schoolmates,  Mary  Baker 
completed  her  education  upon  reaching  long  division 
in  arithmetic,  and  her  culture,  in  advanced  years, 
may  be  somewhat  gauged  by  her  written  attribution 
in  her  seventieth  year,  when,  if  ever,  one's  education 
may  be  assumed  to  have  made  some  little  progress, 

36 


THE   DETACHED  HEART  37 

of  the  authorship  of  Irving  to  the  Pickwick  Papers 
of  Charles  Dickens.  "The  language  is  decaying  as 
fast,"  she  says,  "as  that  of  Irving's  Pickwick  Papers." 

One  may  be  moved,  by  this  reflection  upon  our 
poor  speech,  to  something  like  commiseration  for  the 
language  that  has  been  so  useful  to  us  for  centuries 
past.  But  it  is  consoling  to  reflect  that  the  race 
may  have  access,  throughout  coming  ages,  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  exhaustless  well  of  Enghsh  undefiled  as  it 
appears  in  her  various  immortal  publications.  Her 
private  correspondence,  it  must  be  admitted,  how- 
ever, does  not  exhibit  any  considerable  degree  of 
excellence  in  the  matter  of  spelling,  punctuation, 
grammar  and  capitalization;  but  an  inspired  person 
may  be  excused  for  a  little  carelessness  in  the  use  of 
words. 

Mrs.  Eddy  accounts  for  her  amazing  deficiency 
of  education  and  entire  lack  of  culture  by  an  ingenious 
fairy  tale.  "After  my  discovery  of  Christian  Science," 
she  says,  "most  of  the  knowledge  I  had  gleaned  from 
school  books  vanished  like  a  dream.  Learning  was 
so  illumined,  that  grammar  was  eclipsed."  If  any 
scraps  of  knowledge  were  ever  possessed  by  this 
peculiar  creature,  vanished,  dreamlike  or  otherwise, 
they  surely  did;  and  without  quite  assenting  to  the 
illumination  of  learning  hypothesis,  I  find  no  ground 
for  dissenting  from  the  view  that,  at  some  time  or 
other,  grammar  underwent  total  eclipse. 

The  first  fifty  years  of  her  Hfe  were  hved  in  great 
poverty  and  complete  obscurity.  Before  her  alleged 
discovery   of   Christian   Science,   Mrs.    Eddy   at   one 


38  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

time  eked  out  a  precarious  existence  in  and  about 
Boston  as  a  Spiritualist  medium,  giving  public 
seances  for  money.  Sweet  converse  with  the  illus- 
trious dead  could  be  had  of  Mrs.  Eddy  at  any  time 
by  any  one  who  had  the  price.  Her  interest  in  the 
dead  seems  to  have  been  strictly  confined  to  the 
illustrious  departed. 

In  December,  1843,  when  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  she  married  George  W.  Glover,  a  young  brick- 
layer by  tra(Je,  and  with  him,  shortly  after  the 
marriage,  went  to  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  where 
wages  were  somewhat  higher  than  in  New  Hampshire. 
There  Glover,  three  months  after  the  marriage  and 
six  months  before  the  birth  of  her  only  child,  died 
of  yellow  fever.  He  was  buried  in  Wilmington,  but 
the  spot  is,  to  this  day,  unknown  even  to  his  widow. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  for  many  years  been  exceeding 
rich  in  this  world's  goods.  In  her  personal  conver- 
sation, and  in  her  published  works,  she  has  spoken 
in  terms  of  the  highest  praise  of  this  her  first  hus- 
band, "whose  tender  devotion  to  his  young  wife 
was  remarked,"  she  says,  "by  all  observers."  He 
was  the  father  of  her  only  child,  yet  all  that  is  mortal 
of  him  has  for  nearly  seventy  years  lain  with  the 
unclaimed,  forgotten  and  abandoned  dead  at  Wil- 
mington, North  Carolina. 

Some  years  ago,  friends  of  Mrs.  Eddy  at  Wil- 
mington erected  a  stone  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Glover 
over  a  grave  supposed  to  be  his;  but  a  descendant  of 
the  person  really  buried  there  ruthlessly  tore  the 
stone   from   the  place   he    believed    it    to  desecrate, 


THE    DETACHED    HEART  39 

and  poor  Glover's  final  resting  place  remains  unknown 
and  unnoticed. 

After  reaching  the  dignity  of  leader  of  a  great 
religious  movement,  Mrs.  Eddy  elevated  the  poor 
bricklayer  husband  to  the  proud  position  of  Colonel 
of  Volunteers,  and  she  thus  glorified  him  for  approxi- 
mately forty  years.  Sad  to  relate,  however,  he  is 
"Colonel"  no  longer.  In  the  recent  litigation,  in- 
stituted by  Mrs.  Eddy's  sons,  one  of  the  witnesses  I 
was  examining  produced  in  evidence  a  letter  from 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  which  she  said,  "I  called  my  late  hus- 
band" (she  should  have  said  late  first  husband,  as  a 
second,  a  third  and  perhaps  a  fourth  had  then  inter- 
vened), "I  called  my  late  husband  Colonel,  because 
he  was  connected  with  the  militia,  and  I  had  got 
mixed  on  his  rank."  She  might  just  as  well  have 
called  him  General  for  the  same  reason. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  Glover  ever  belonged  to  the 
militia,  he  never  arose  beyond  the  dignity  of  high 
private  and  having  been  a  man  of  simple  life  and 
honest  purpose  would,  no  doubt,  if  he  could  know 
of  it,  be  a  little  uncomfortable  in  his  narrow  bed  at 
the  undreamed  military  distinction  thrust  upon  him 
by  his  famous  widow ;  but  it  would  sadden  him  a  little 
to  know  that,  after  having  elevated  him  to  the  exalted 
rank  of  Colonel,  she  should  in  later  years  have  reduced 
him  to  the  less  imposing  position  of  Major,  by  which 
military  title  he  now  is  distinguished  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
conversation. 

As  a  second  matrimonial  venture,  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
1853  allied  herself  with  one  Daniel  Patterson,  who 


40  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

in  her  autobiographical  sketches  has  been  completely 
ignored,  although  he  shared  twenty  years  of  connubial 
life  with  her.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  left  behind 
him  the  sweet  aroma  of  the  more  chivalrous  Glover, 
who  survived  the  marriage  only  three  months.  Pat- 
terson was  an  itinerant  dentist  of  little  or  no  practice, 
and  life  with  him  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a 
pathway  strewn  with  flowers. 

It  profits  not  to  dwell  upon  the  Patterson  episode. 
When  he  was  not  pursuing  the  elusive  dollar  that 
perpetually  fled  away,  he  appears  to  have  been  chas- 
ing the  festive  bullfrog  whose  dismal  croak  jarred 
upon^  his  wife's  sensitive  nerves.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  Daniel  and  Mary  endured  one  another,  with 
what  serenity  and  fortitude  they  might,  for  twenty 
long,  weary  years,  when,  in  1873,  a  divorce  was  granted 
her  for  his  desertion.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  the  divorce 
was  granted  for  a  different  cause,  but  the  record  con- 
tradicts her.  The  record  always  contradicts  her. 
She  has  declared  herself  to  be  opposed  to  divorce  for 
any  but  the  single  Biblical  cause;  but  the  record  of 
the  Superior  Court  at  Salem  shows  her  to  have  ob- 
tained a  divorce  from  Patterson  for  desertion  seven 
years  after  the  time  God,  as  she  says,  had  revealed  to 
her  the  final  religion. 

Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  believe  in  marriage  —  for 
others.  She  was  inspired  of  God  to  teach  that  it  is 
not  good  —  for  others  —  to  marry  and  she  has  in- 
spired into  the  minds  of  her  faithful  followers  the 
belief  that  marriage  is  of  the  earth  very  earthy 
indeed,  and  that  life  in  the  realm  of  spirit  is  impossible 


THE    DETACHED    HEART  41 

to  those  in  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony.  But  so 
far  as  she  herself  was  concerned,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  she  seems  to  have  had  a  distinct  fancy  for 
marriage,  and  I  may  go  so  far  as  to  say  something 
approaching  fondness  for  variety  in  the  marriage 
state. 

In  any  event,  after  the  termination  by  operation 
of  law  of  the  second  marriage,  that  is  to  say  on 
January  1,  1877,  Mrs.  Eddy  made  another  and  third 
venture  into  marriage  and  conferred  upon  one  Gil- 
bert Asa  Eddy  the  proud  and  happy  distinction  of 
successor  to  the  deceased  Glover  and  the  departed 
Patterson.  The  record  of  this  marriage  (another 
record,  be  it  noted)  discloses  the  amusing  fact  that 
Mrs.  Eddy's  age  was  given  as  forty  years,  the  mar- 
riage having  been  celebrated  fifty-six  years  from  the 
date  of  her  birth;  so  that  instead  of  blossoming  and 
blooming  in  garlands  gay  for  a  fair,  young,  winsome 
thing  of  forty  summers,  the  roads  were  decked  with 
garlands  somewhat  somber  for  the  third  glad  nuptials 
of  the  blushing  bride  of  fifty-six.  But  what  is  a 
little  matter  of  sixteen  years  in  the  life  of  a  person 
who  is  superior  to  time  and  of  whose  life  here  in  the 
flesh  there  shall  be  no  end? 

After  years  of  toil  and  trouble,  of  conflict  and 
disharmony,  of  stress  and  strain,  in  which  some  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  early  friends  strongly  sympathized  with 
Mr.  Eddy,  who  complained  that  neither  he  nor  God 
Almighty  could  please  his  exacting  spouse,  this  hus- 
band, too,  was  gathered  Jo  his  fathers  and  Mrs, 
Rddv  was  for  a  third  time  a  widow. 


42  THE   RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

In  her  efforts  to  impose  upon  the  creduhty  of 
simple-minded  people,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  not  hesitated 
to  claim  the  power  to  triumph  over  death,  and  to 
have  actually  restored  the  dead  to  life.  To  her 
intimates  she  has  claimed  to  have  thus  twice  re- 
stored to  life  this  lamented  third  husband,  Asa  G. 
Eddy. 

If  Mrs.  Eddy  has,  or  had,  this  power,  the  mind  of 
the  incredulous  will  wonder  why  the  poor  man  is 
now  dead,  why  his  potent  helpmate  did  not  restore 
him  to  life  the  third  time  he  died.  Presumably, 
Mrs.  Eddy  reasoned  with  herself  that  it  was  really 
expecting  too  much  of  a  woman,  even  a  woman 
Messiah,  that  she  should  recall  from  death  the  third 
husband  three  times,  and  as  husbands  had  become, 
to  some  extent,  a  matter  of  habit  with  her,  it  is  not, 
perhaps,  remarkable  that  she  consented  finally  to  part 
with  this  one  after  such  unmistakable  evidence  of  his 
persistent  desire  to  be  separated  from  her  even  by 
death. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  in  her  book,  "Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings," modestly  given  us  this  husband's  estimate  of 
her  in  these  words:  "Perhaps  the  following  words  of 
her  husband,  the  late  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy,  afford  the 
most  concise,  yet  complete,  summary  of  the  matter, 
'Mrs.  Eddy's  works  are  the  outgrowth  of  her  life. 
I  never  knew  so  unselfish  an  individual.'"  So,  per- 
haps, she  let  Eddy  go,  finally,  out  of  pure  unselfishness. 
Sweet  as  was  his  companionship,  she  could  not  keep 
him  by  her  side  when  repeatedly  assured  of  his  un- 
alterable wish  to  go  hence. 


THE    DETACHED  HEART  43 

The  first  husband,  Glover,  survived  the  marriage 
but  a  few  months;  the  second  husband,  Patterson, 
unappreciative  wretch  that  he  was,  ran  away,  and, 
as  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  us,  found  consolation  in  the  affec- 
tion of  the  "wealthy  lady"  who  ran  away  with  him 
(although  it  must  be  said  that  no  corroboration 
whatever  of  the  "w^ealthy  lady"  feature  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  story  exists);  and  the  third  husband,  Eddy, 
after  having  been  twice  recaptured,  finally  escaped 
by  death's  door. 

There  is  another  singular,  grewsome  incident 
connected  with  the  death  of  Mr.  Eddy,  husband 
number  three.  He  died  of  heart  disease.  There 
was  no  manner  of  doubt  about  that;  but  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  professed  to  have  the  power  to  cure  heart  disease 
in  the  most  advanced  stage,  and  she  must  find  an 
explanation  of  her  husband's  death  consistent  with 
the  possession,  by  her,  of  such  power.  So  she  said 
that  Eddy  did  not  die  of  heart  disease  after  all. 
He  died  of  poison,  of  arsenical  poison,  that's  what  he 
died  of;  and  he  didn't  die  of  arsenical  poison  mixed 
with  his  food  or  drink  or  otherwise  in  chemical  form 
smuggled  into  his  organism.  He  died  of  arsenical 
poison  mentally  administered,  thought  into  him  by 
her  enemies. 

Now  even  a  woman  Messiah  could  not  be  on  the 
lookout  all  the  time  against  these  malicious  thoughts 
directed  at  her  third  husband  and,  in  a  moment  of 
inadvertence,  one  of  them  got  by  and  killed  Eddy, 
and  killed  him  dead. 

To  confirm    her    singular  notion   and  prove  the 


44  THE   RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

presence  of  the  symptoms  of  arsenical  poison  in  the 
body,  Mrs.  Eddy  procured  the  performance  of  an 
autopsy  upon  her  late  husband's  remains. 

Dr.  Rufus  K.  Noyes  of  Boston,  who  performed 
the  autopsy,  tells  me  that,  having  removed  the 
diseased  organ  from  Mr.  Eddy's  breast,  he  exhibited 
it  upon  a  platter  to  the  sorrowing  widow,  who  craved 
the  ocular  demonstration,  and  pointed  out  to  her 
curious  and  eager  inspection  the  precise  cause  of 
death  in  its  diseased  condition.  And  it  was  after, 
and  notwithstanding,  her  close  scrutiny  of  the 
physical  heart  that  had  so  robustly  throbbed  with 
love  of  her,  that,  much  to  Dr.  Noyes'  amusement, 
Mrs.  Eddy  gave  out  the  statement,  to  the  extent  of 
a  column  or  more  in  the  newspapers,  that  arsenical 
poison  mentally  administered  by  absent  treatment 
had  in  fact  torn  her  loved  one  a  third  time,  and 
finally,  from  her  clinging  grasp. 

How  sweet,  how  charming,  is  the  wifely  devotion, 
that,  kissing  the  lips  of  death,  speedily  and  forever 
loses  track  of  the  sacred  ashes  of  the  beloved  first 
husband,  rushes  into  the  divorce  court  for  freedom 
from  the  truant  second,  and,  having  twice  restored 
the  adored  third  to  life,  when  a  third  time  he  thus 
eludes  her  refuses,  positively  and  coldly  refuses,  to 
bring  him  back  and  looks  with  calm  and  critical 
eyes  upon  the  formerly  attached,  but  now,  alas, 
detached  heart! 

To  the  soft  impeachment  of  these  three  several 
marriages,  this  pronounced  opponent  of  marriage 
pleads   a   bashful   guilty,    but   many   are   they   who 


THE   DETACHED  HEART  45 

believe  there  was  yet  a  fourth  marriage,  and  that 
the  widow  Eddy  in  course  of  time  became,  and  is 
today,  the  wife  of  one,  Calvin  A.  Frye. 

Frye  is,  ostensibly,  at  least,  Mrs.  Eddy's  servant, 
her  man  of  all  work.  He  is  her  footman,  and  in  the 
livery  of  a  footman  rides  upon  the  driver's  seat  of 
her  carriage  when  she  goeth  forth  for  her  daily  drives. 
He  is  also  her  private  secretary,  who  handles  her 
mail,  and,  at  his  pleasure,  permits  her  to  peruse,  or 
throws  into  the  waste-paper  basket,  communications 
addressed  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  He  is  her  major-domo, 
master  of  ceremonies  in  her  pretentious  estabhsh- 
ment  and  director  of  her  large  retinue  of  assistant 
secretaries,  literary  experts,  personal  healers,  mental 
protectors  and  domestic  servants.  These  positions 
Mr.  Frye  has  adorned,  as  a  resident  member  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  family,  occupying  an  adjoining  room,  for 
upwards  of  thirty  years.  But  not  only  is  Mr.  Frye 
Mrs.  Eddy's  servant,  her  footman,  her  secretary,  her 
man-of-all  work,  he,  strangely  it  would  seem,  has  for 
years  at  a  time  held  the  legal  title  to  the  capacious 
residence  in  which  she  has  lived  at  Concord,  New 
Hampshire,  and  to  all  the  highly  cultivated  grounds 
about  it,  and  to  all  the  personal  property  upon  the 
place.  And  not  only  has  Mr.  Frye  been  Mrs.  Eddy's 
servant  and  secretary,  her  footman  and  the  owner  of 
her  lands  and  houses,  her  horses  and  carriages,  the 
furniture  within  the  houses,  and  the  crops  upon  the 
extensive  acres,  he  was  for  years  the  legal  owner  of 
her  costly  jewels,  of  the  diamond  cross  which  she 
wore    at   her   throat.     Her   footman,    owner   of   the 


46  THE  RELIGIO-MEDICAL  MASQUERADE 

house  in  which  she  lived,  of  the  carriage  in  which  he 
took  her  to  drive  and  of  the  jewels  she  wore!  This 
condition  of  affairs  was  not  changed  until  I  called 
attention  to  it  a  few  years  ago,  when  Mr.  Frye  recon- 
ve3^ed  to,  shall  I  say  Mrs.  Frye?  all  the  property 
standing  in  his  name. 

All  of  these  circumstances,  taken  with  the  confi- 
dent opinion  of  one  long  a  member  of  her  household 
that,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  isn't  the  wife  of  Frye,  she  ought 
to  be,  are  to  my  mind  strong  indication  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  ought  to  be  called  Mrs.  Frye  and  her  credu- 
lous followers  not  Eddyites,  but  Fryeites  or  Frytes; 
and  I  predict  that,  if  Frye  survive  Mrs.  Eddy  and  be 
not  amply  provided  for  by  her  will  or  settled  with 
by  her  executors,  he  will  go  into  the  Probate  Court 
and  proclaim  himself  to  be  her  surviving  husband, 
entitled  to  one-third  of  her  estate. 

I  do  not  state  this  fourth  marriage  as  a  fact,  but 
offer  it  as  the  only  possible  and  creditable  explanation 
of  the  facts. 

As  has  been  said,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  one  son  born  to 
her  who  was  totally  and  unfeelingly  abandoned  by 
her  in  his  early  infancy,  who  lives  in  a  western  State, 
and  seldom  or  never  visits  his  famous  mother.  No 
member  of  her  family  ever  believed  in  her,  ever  placed 
the  slightest  credence  in  her  preposterous  pretentions. 
Mrs.  Eddy  also  has  an  adopted"  son.  Some  years 
ago  she  legally  adopted  a  male  child,  a  medical  man 
named  Foster,  then  forty  years  old,  who,  to  acquire  a 
mother  by  adoption,  took  the  name  of  E.  J.  Foster- 
Eddy,  and  became  a  member  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  family; 


THE    DETACHED  HEART  47 

but,  after  a  too  brief  period  of  harmonious  cohabita- 
tion, the  sweet  domestic  relation  was,  for  reasons  not 
made  public,  interrupted,  and  now  he  also  finds  it 
agreeable  to  live  elsewhere  than  with  his  adopted 
mother  and  is  heard  of  no  more  in  Christian-Science- 
dom. 

From  a  humble  position  of  dependence,  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  arisen  to  a  proud  position  of  great  opu- 
lence, and  from  complete  obscurity,  devoid  of  in- 
fluence and  power,  has  placed  herself  at  the  head  of 
the  most  phenomenal  "rehgious"  movement  of  this 
or  any  other  time,  and  made  herself  believed  to  be 
the  God-anointed  successor  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  His 
equal  in  attributes  and  power;  and  this  she  has  ac- 
compUshed  through  a  lie,  a  dehberate,  wilful,  wicked 
lie. 


CHAPTER  III 
Pretence  of  Equality  with  Jesus 

COMING  now  to  what  makes  it  worth  our  while 
to  consider  the  career  of  this  remarkable  woman, 
let  me  present  the  facts  regarding  her  relation  to  the 
life  and  to  the  activities  of  the  world  of  today,  and  how 
and  by  what  very  devious  means  she  has  reached 
and  maintains  the  position  she  now  holds. 

What  does  Mrs.  Eddy  claim  to  be,  and  what  is 
she  believed  to  be  by  many  thousands  of  people  who 
have  made  her  their  religious  leader  and  guide,  and 
reverence  her  as  the  devout  Christian  reverences 
Christ? 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  that  she  is  the  fulfilment  of 
Biblical  prophecy,  that  she  and  her  book  are  specifi- 
cally referred  to  and  prophesied  in  the  Book  of 
Revelation. 

She  says,  "My  attention  is  especially  called  to  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse  or  Revelation  of 
Saint  John,  on  account  of  its  suggestiveness  in  con- 
nection with  this  nineteenth  century.  In  this  open- 
ing of  the  sixth  seal,  there  is  one  distinctive  feature 
which  has  special  reference  to  the  present  age,  and  the 
establishment  of  Christian  Science  in  this  period. 
'And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven,  a 

48 


PRETENCE   OF  EQUALITY   WITH   JESUS  49 

woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon  under 
her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars.' " 

With  eyes  downcast,  with  "bated  breath  and 
whispering  humbleness,"  bashfully  pointing  to  her- 
self, in  low  tones  that  inspire  awe,  she  says,  "The 
woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

Again,  she  says:  "Saint  John  writes  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Revelation:  'And  I  saw  another 
mighty  angel  come  down  from  Heaven,  clothed  with 
a  cloud,  and  a  rainbow  was  upon  his  head,  and  his 
face  was,  as  it  were,  the  sun,  and  his  feet  as  pillars 
of  fire.  And  he  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book,  open, 
and  he  set  his  right  foot  upon  the  earth.*  Is  this 
angel,  or  message  from  God,  Divine  Science  that 
comes  in  a  cloud?  This  angel  had  in  his  hand  a  little 
book  open  for  all  to  read  and  understand.  Then  will 
a  voice  from  harmony  cry.  Go  and  take  the  little 
book.  Take  up  Divine  Science.  Study  it,  ponder  it. 
It  will  be  indeed  sweet  at  its  first  taste  when  it  heals 
you,  but  murmur  not  over  Truth  if  you  find  its 
digestion  bitter." 

The  "little  book,"  "Science  and  Health,"  of  God's 
authorship,  but  copyrighted  by  Rev.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy,  and  to  be  had  of  her  publisher  in  Boston  by 
any  one  who  has  three  dollars  or  more,  according  to 
binding,  to  pay  for  it! 

Intentionally  vague  as  are  these  oracular  utter- 
ances, we  cannot  but  catch  her  evident  meaning: 
In  me  behold  the  woman  clothed  with  the  sun;  in 
my  book,  the  "little  book"  sent  down  from  Heaven, 
and  in  Christian  Science  the  message  from  God  con- 


50  THE   RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

tained  in  the  little  book  held  in  the  hand  of  the 
angel ! 

Christian  Scientists  get  this  down  without  so 
much  as  a  murmur!  This  is  one  of  the  easy  things 
she  has  given  them  to  swallow. 

Besides  this,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  distinctly  authorized 
the  claim  in  her  behalf  that  she  herself  is  the  chosen 
successor  to  and  equal  of  Jesus,  that  her  mission  is 
to  complete  the  religion  of  Christ. 

In  the  earlier  days  she  placed  her  mission  above 
that  of  Jesus,  inasmuch  as  the  idea  of  God  given 
by  her  was,  she  said,  "higher,  clearer  and  more  per- 
manent than  before."  But,  later,  she  seems  to  have 
been  satisfied  with  equality  only,  and  says,  "The 
second  appearing  of  Jesus  is  unquestionably  the 
second  advent  of  the  advancing  idea  of  God  as  in 
Christian  Science." 

She,  however,  patronizingly  points  out  the  short- 
comings of  Jesus.  "Our  Master  healed  the  sick, 
practiced  Christian  healing,  and  taught  the  generali- 
ties of  this  divine  principle  to  his  students,  but  he 
left  no  definite  word  for  demonstrating  his  principle 
of  healing  and  preventing  disease.  This  remained 
to  be  discovered  through  Christian  Science,"  and 
"Had  wisdom  characterized  all  his  sayings,  he  would 
not  have  prophesied  his  own  death  and  thereby 
hastened  or  caused  it."  While  in  speaking  of  her- 
self she  said,  "The  works  I  have  written  on  Christian 
Science  contain  absolute  truth  and  my  necessity  was 
to  tell  it.  I  was  a  scribe  under  orders,  and  who  can 
refrain   from  transcribing  what   God    indites?"     So 


PRETENCE  OF  EQUALITY  WITH  JESUS  51 

wisdom  did  not  characterize  all  of  the  sayings  of 
Jesus;  but  Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  absolute  truth! 

In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  April,  1889, 
when  it  was  her  property  and  published  by  her,  and 
upwards  of  twenty  years  after  the  time  she  says 
God  had  selected  her  to  complete  the  reHgion  of 
Jesus,  it  was  claimed  for  her,  and  with  her  sanction, 
that  she  was  equal  with  Jesus,  and  elaborate  effort 
was  made  to  establish  the  claim.  "Now  a  word 
about  the  horror  many  good  people  have  of  our 
making  the  author  of  'Science  and  Health'  equal 
with  Jesus!"  says  the  writer,  and  in  the  first  para- 
graph of  the  article,  the  question  is  asked,  "Do  we, 
then,  say  that  the  author  of  'Science  and  Health'  is 
equal  with  Jesus?"  A  little  further  on  appears  the 
statement,  "Jesus  demonstrated  over  all  the  beliefs 
of  this  false  sense  of  life,  even  over  the  belief  of 
death,  the  last  enemy  to  be  overcome."  And  further, 
"Mrs.  M.  B.  G.  Eddy  has  worked  out  for  us,  as  on 
a  blackboard,  every  point  in  the  demonstrations,  or 
so-called  miracles  of  Jesus,  showing  us  how  to  meet 
and  overcome  the  one,  and  perform  the  other"  and, 
throughout  the  article,  its  whole  clearly  apparent 
purpose  is  to  carry  the  conviction  that  in  attributes 
and  power  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  entire  equal  of  Jesus. 

In  an  illustrated  "poem"  entitled  "Christ  and 
Christmas,"  written  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  pubHshed 
and  copyrighted  by  her  in  1894,  there  is  a  picture 
labeled  "Christian  Unity,"  in  which  Jesus  is  repre- 
sented as  seated  upon  a  stone  holding  the  right  hand 
of  Mary  —  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.     In  the  left  hand 


52  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

of  the  woman  is  a  scroll  bearing  the  legend  "Chris- 
tian Science,"  and  about  the  head  of  each  figure, 
that  of  Jesus  and  that  of  the  Christian  Science 
woman,  there  is  a  halo.  The  picture  is  illustrative 
of  these  lines  on  the  opposite  page: 

"As  in  blessed  Palestine's  hour,  so  in  our  age 
'Tis  the  same  hand  unfolds  His  Power  and  writes 
the  page.'! 

At  the  time  this  book  was  announced  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  in  December,  1893,  she  publicly  said  of  it, 
"'Christ  and  Christmas'  voices  God  through  song 
and  object  lesson."  The  price  of  the  book  was  three 
dollars.  How  convenient  to  be  able  to  command  a 
market  by  voicing  God!  How  kind  God  has  been  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  business  ventures! 

At  the  time  of  this  publication,  Mrs.  Eddy,  who 
claimed  to  have  shared  in  making  the  illustrations 
(which  her  man  Hanna  called  "exquisite  bits  of  art," 
but  which  are,  doubtless,  the  vulgarest  products  of 
the  art  of  book-making  of  many  years),  at  this  time, 
I  say,  Mrs.  Eddy  unquestionably  wished  this  "Chris- 
tian Unity"  illustration  to  signify  the  unity  of 
Christianity  and  Christian  Science,  as  represented  by 
the  founder  of  Christianity  and  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  and  about  her  own  head,  as  about  the 
head  of  Christ,  she  hangs  a  halo!  The  two  Messiahs, 
masculine  and  feminine,  and  representing  "Our 
Father  and  our  Mother  God,"  hand  in  hand,  absolute 
equality,  Christian  Unitv! 


PRETENCE    OP  EQUALITY   WITH  JESUS  53 

Her  private  correspondence  has  been  full  of  pre- 
tensions to  direct  meditation  with  God,  and  her  fol- 
lowers have  been  induced  unquestioningly  to  comply 
with  her  wishes  regarding  the  most  trivial  things  be- 
cause she  but  voiced  a  wish  communicated  to  them 
through  her  by  God. 

"God,  our  God  has  just  told  me,"  she  says,  "who 
to  recommend  to  you  for  editor  of  the  Christian  Science 
Journal.' '  And , "  No  man  or  woman  has  told  me  of  this 
obnoxious  feature,  but  my  Father  has,  and  it  shall  be 
stopped  by  His  servant  who  has  given  His  word  to 
the  world."  And,  "God's  law  'to  feed  my  sheep,'  to 
give  Science  and  Health  at  once  to  those  hungering 
for  it,  must  be  obeyed."  (To  those  hungering  three 
dollars  worth!)  .And,  "I  ought  not  to  have  con- 
sulted with  man  on  the  copyright  of  God's  Book." 
And,  "Come  to  see  me  next  Saturday,  a.m.,  on  nine 
o'clock  train,  and  God  will  settle  this  matter."  And, 
"Now  what  can  I  do,  only  to  spread  His  word  of 
warning  and  wait  for  all  students  to  grow  up  to  un- 
derstand His  ways,  and  mine  when  God  directed." 
And,  "God  will  not  let  me  be  silent  relative  to  your 
business  here  yesterday,  but  demands  me  to  answer, 
reminding  you  of  your  feelings  toward  me."  And, 
"Push  the  Book  to  as  fast  as  possible  completion. 
It  is  God's  Book,  and  he  says  give  it  at  once  to  the 
people."  (At  three  dollars  per  copy!)  And,  "You 
know  they  cannot  be  made  sick  for  printing  and 
binding  God's  Book." 

But  Jove  nods;  Mrs.  Eddy  stumbles.  Sometimes 
it  is  the  Christian  Science  devil  that,  impersonating 


54  THE    RELIGIO7MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

God,  whispers  to  her.  "I  regret,"  she  says,  "having 
named  the  one  I  did  to  you  for  editor.  It  was  a 
mistake,  he  is  not  fit.  It  was  not  God  evidently  that 
suggested  that  thought,  but  the  person  who  suggests 
many  things  mentally;  but  I  have  before  been  able 
to  discriminate."  This  incident  suggests  the  im- 
portance of  one,  who  is  the  channel  of  wireless  teleg- 
raphy from  God,  being  able  to  discriminate  between 
messages  from  Heaven  and  messages  from  Hell,  and 
having  the  power  to  prevent  satanic  interference 
with  the  medium  of  communication. 

In  a  late  edition  of  "Science  and  Health"  Mrs.  Eddy 
speaks  of  Jesus  as  "the  masculine  representative  of 
the  spiritual  idea,"  and  says,  "the  impersonation  of 
the  spiritual  idea  had  a  brief  history  in  the  earthly 
life  of  our  Master,  but  of  His  Kingdom  there  shall  be 
no  end,  for  Christ's,  God's  idea,  will  eventually  rule 
all  nations  and  people,  imperatively,  absolutely, 
finally, — with  Divine  Science.  This  immaculate 
idea,  represented  first  by  man  and  last  by  woman, 
will  baptize  with  fire,"  etc. 

By  "Divine  Science,"  Mrs.  Eddy,  of  course,  means 
Christian  Science,  as  the  terms  are  used  interchang- 
ably  with  her,  and  with  characteristic  modesty  she 
places  herself  by  the  side  of  the  Master  —  He  being 
the  first  and  masculine,  and  she  the  last  and  feminine, 
representative  of  the  "immaculate  idea." 

What  marvelous  presumption!  What  ineffable 
audacity ! 

The  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  who  in  speaking  of  a 
woman  she  disliked  savagely  exclaimed,  "I'd  like  to 


PRETENCE   OP  EQUALITY   WITH  JESUS  55 

tear  her  heart  out  and  trample  it  under  my  feet!" 
who,  at  Lynn,  because  of  her  abuse  of  her  husband 
and  violent  outbursts  of  temper,  was  known  as  the 
"she  devil";  who,  four  years  after  the  time  of  her 
pretended  selection  by  God  for  a  divine  mission,  be- 
ing denied  hospitality  she  had  abused  in  the  Went- 
worth  household  at  Stoughton,  left  in  a  fury  of 
passion  after  having,  with  obvious  intent,  put 
live  coals  from  her  stove  upon  a  heap  of  news- 
papers in  the  closet;  who  figured  first  as  a  spiritualist 
medium,  giving  public  stances  for  money,  and  later 
as  the  president  of  a  bogtis  medical  college  issuing 
illegal  degrees;  who  unfeelingly  abandoned  the  only 
child  born  to  her,  and  looked  with  unflinching  eyes 
upon  the  detached  heart  of  her  deceased  husband; 
who  has  become  the  champion  fraud  and  impostor  of 
the  age;  who  in  the  livery  of  heaven  has  for  forty 
years  wrought  in  the  direct  interest  of  hell,  —  this 
Mrs.  Eddy,  the  self-constituted  representative  with 
Jesus  of  the  immaculate  idea!  this  woman  and  the 
immaculate  Jesus  mentioned  in  the  same  breath! 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Faked  Revelation 

BACK  in  1877  Mrs.  Eddy  placed  her  mission,  as 
I  have  said,  above  that  of  Jesus.  In  a  personal 
letter  to  a  friend,  she  said,  "I  know  the  crucifixion 
of  one  who  presents  Truth  in  its  higher  aspect  will 
be  this  time  through  a  bigger  error,  through  mortal 
mind  instead  of  its  lower  strata  or  matter,  showing 
that  the  idea  given  of  God  this  time  is  higher,  clearer, 
and  more  permanent  than  before.''  But  of  late  years 
she  has  contented  herself  with  claiming  only  equality, 
in  all  respects,  with  Jesus,  and  has  not  hesitated  boldly 
and  in  so  many  words  to  declare  her  teachings  to 
have  been  expressly  "authorized  by  Christ." 

We  must  go  into  this  matter  with  some  particu- 
larity, and  I  crave  indulgence  while  I  present  certain 
essential  details.  I  want  to  leave  no  doubt  in  any 
orderly  mind  as  to  just  what  Mrs.  Eddy  claims  to  be, 
and  shall  then  show,  with  an  abundance  of  evidence 
that  will  not  permit  of  the  slightest  doubt,  just 
exactly  the  manner  of  woman  she  has  been  and  is. 
When  the  most  corrupt  tree  in  the  orchard  brings 
forth  the  sweetest  and  most  beautiful  fruit  of  all, 
it  will  be  believed  that  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  can  be 
the  channel  through  which  God  has  revealed  Himself 
to  mankind,  and  it  will  not  be  believed  until  then. 

56 


THE    FAKED    REVELATION  57 

I  am  of  those  who  believe  that  there  can  be  no 
rehgion  but  a  religion  based  upon  revelation.  Either 
God  reveals  himself  to  us,  or  He  remains  unknown 
and  unknowable.  "No  man  by  searching  can  find 
out  God."  Reason  alone  cannot  attain  unto  Him. 
God  hides  Himself  from  the  wise,  and  the  mightiest 
intellect  approaches  no  nearer  to  Him  than  the  simple 
mind  of  a  child. 

This  great  truth  has  been  and  is  the  common 
behef  of  mankind,  and  every  unprincipled  person, 
who  has  appealed  to  human  credulity  along  religious 
lines,  knowing  mankind  to  so  believe,  has  faked  a 
revelation  from  God.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  put  herself  in 
a  class  by  herself  by  the  boldness,  the  irreverence, 
the  recklessness,  the  blasphemy  of  her  pretended 
intimacy  with  God. 

In  express  terms,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science 
claims  to  have  received  from  the  Almighty  a  revela- 
tion which  she  has  incorporated  in  her  book  entitled 
"Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures." 
Speaking  of  this  book,  in  January,  1901,  she  said: 
"  I  should  blush  to  write  of  '  Science  and  Health,  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures'  as  I  have,  were  it  of  human 
origin  and  I,  apart  from  God,  its  author,  but  as  I 
was  only  a  scribe  echoing  the  harmonies  of  Heaven 
in  divine  metaphysics,  I  cannot  be  super-modest  of 
the  Christian  Science  Text-book." 

Nothing  could  be  plainer  or  more  unequivocal 
than  that.  There  is  a  distinct  avowal  that  the  book 
entitled  "Science  and  Health"  was  the  work  of 
Almighty  God,  and,  preposterous  as  the  claim  may 


58  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

seem  to  any  rational  being  who  has  ever  undertaken 
to  read  the  book,  slanderous  as  it  is  upon  Omnis- 
cience, some  thousands  of  people  in  the  United  States 
today  believe  it  precisely  as  made.  They  believe 
that  God  Hterally  dictated  the  contents  of  this  book 
to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  that  it  is  in  every  part  as  much  the 
word  of  God  as  the  most  devout  Christian  beHeves 
the  Bible  to  be  in  any  part  the  word  of  God. 

This  is  the  sacrilegious  lie  upon  which  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy  has  reared  her  whole  fraudulent  super- 
scructure,  which  she  had  denominated  Christian 
Science,  and  which  has  become  the  rehgious  belief 
of  thousands.  It  is  because  of  this  lie  that  Christian 
Science  flourishes  Hke  a  green  bay  tree;  that  the  old 
faith  does  not  hold  its  believers;  that  real  scientific 
knowledge  in  medicine  is  losing  the  confidence  it 
ought  to  enjoy.  It  is  because  of  this  lie  that  Chris- 
tian Science  wives  separate  themselves  from  their 
husbands;  that  Christian  Science  mothers  abandon 
their  children;  that  young  women  believers  put 
marriage  behind  them  as  lustful  and  unclean  and  in- 
consistent with  true  spirituality  of  hfe  and  character. 
It  is  because  of  this  lie,  this  cruel  and  wicked  lie, 
that  children  are  permitted  needlessly  to  suffer  and 
needlessly  to  die  without  any  intelhgent  perception 
that  they  are  suffering,  and  after  a  resolute  with- 
holding by  their  deluded  parents  of  trained  medical 
skill  that  would  alleviate  suffering  and  save  life.  And 
this  odious  lie,  I  purpose,  while  strength  abides  with 
me,  to  hold  up  to  the  enduring  detestation  of  mankind. 

I  am  going  to  show,  with  absolute  conclusiveness. 


THE    FAKED    REVELATION  59 

that  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  to  revelation  is  wholly  false. 
And  when  I  have  shown  that,  I  shall  have  shown  that 
the  "religious"  phase  of  Christian  Science  is  a  fraud 
and  a  sham ;  I  shall  have  shown  that  it  is  a  veritable 
parody  upon  religion,  a  caricature  upon  Christianity; 
I  shall  have  shown  that  every  beautiful  temple 
erected  for  the  worship  of  the  Christian  Science  God 
is  a  monument  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  success  in  imposing 
upon  mankind,  and  that  all  of  the  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  pure  and  simple-minded  people,  who 
acclaim  her  God's  messenger,  are  the  victims  of  a 
mercenary  old  schemer  who  has  amazed  herself  at 
the  gullibility  of  her  worshipers. 

I  am  not  dealing  in  exaggeration.  I  am  not 
speaking  without  knowledge  when  I  say  that  no 
sane  person  can  follow  me  through  this  narrative 
and  not  agree  with  me  that  Christian  Science  as  a 
religion  is  a  sham,  as  a  healing  system  is  a  fraud; 
that  it  kills  the  sweetest  and  tenderest  emotions  in 
the  human  heart  by  rooting  out  sympathy  and 
charity  and  compassion;  that  there  is  no  other 
hatred  and  vindictiveness  equal  to  the  hatred  and 
vindictiveness  of  its  founder  and  her  leading  vo- 
taries; that  there  is  no  other  cruelty,  no  other  greed 
that  can  be  compared  with  theirs,  and  that  the 
"inspired"  teaching  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  regard- 
ing the  most  sacred  institution  established  amongst 
men,  I  refer  to  the  institution  of  marriage,  is  so  low 
and  so  vile  that  decent  people,  when  they  come  to 
understand  it,  must  repudiate  the  woman  and  the 
thing  from  overwhelming  shame. 


()0  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Insanity  is  not  responsible  for  indecency,  but 
those  Christian  Scientists  who  have  not  parted  with 
their  sanity,  and  are  not  Christian  Scientists  for 
revenue  only,  will  turn  with  horror  from  the  woman 
and  her  work  when  they  know  what  they  are. 

I  say  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  to  having  received 
an  inspiration  from  God  is  fraudulent.  Now,  what 
are  the  facts? 

That  God  had  nothing  to  do  with  Mrs.  Eddy's 
book  is  abundantly  proven  by  the  book  itself,  to 
any  person  of  sufficient  understanding  to  be  at  large 
outside  of  Bedlam.  Who  but  a  person  of  weak  or 
disordered  mind  could  beheve  that  God  is  the  author 
of  this,  "The  condition  of  the  stomach,  bowels,  food, 
clothing,  etc.,  is  of  no  serious  import  to  your  child"? 

Can  any  not  absolutely  insane  parent  believe  that 
God  communicated  that  "absolute  truth"  to  Mrs. 
Eddy? 

Again:  "The  less  we  know  of  or  think  about 
Hygiene,  the  less  we  are  predisposed  to  sickness." 

That  is  to  say,  the  more  we  khow  about  how  to 
keep  well  and  how  to  avoid  conditions  breeding 
disease,  the  more  likely  we  are  to  be  sick. 

Again:  "Treatises  on  anatomy,  physiology  and 
health  sustained  by  what  is  termed  material  law,  are 
the  promoters  of  sickness  and  disease.  It  is  prover- 
bial that  as  long  as  you  read  medical  works  you 
will  be  sick." 

We  have  all  observed  the  truth  of  this  inspired 
utterance  in  the  fact  that  the  physicians,  as  a  body, 
are  almost  constantly  in  bed  of  one  disease  or  another. 


THE    FAKED    " REVELATION  "  61 

The  wonder  is  that   any   of  them  ever  surivive  the 
courses  of  preparatory  study. 

Again:  "Not  because  of  muscular  exercise,  but 
because  of  the  blacksmith's  faith  in  muscle,  his 
arm  becomes  stronger." 

All  one  has  to  do  to  develop  his  biceps  is  to  have 
faith  that  his  biceps  will  develop,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  really 
speak  by  inspiration  of  God. 

Again:  "You  say  or  think  because  you  have  par- 
taken of  salt  fish  that  you  are  thirsty,  and  you  are 
thirsty  accordingly;  while  the  opposite  belief  would 
produce  the  opposite  result." 

That  is  to  say,  you  may  partake  of  all  the  salt 
fish  you  please;  but  if  you  persistently  say  and 
believe  it  cannot  cause  thirst,  thirst  is  the  last  sensa- 
tion that  will  afflict  you. 

Again:  "Question.  Do  not  brains  think  and 
nerves  feel,  and  is  there  no  intelligence  in  matter? 
Answer.  Not  if  God  be  true  and  mortal  man  a 
liar." 

In  other  words,  if  God  be  true,  brains  do  not 
think  and  nerves  do  not  feel.  That  brains  do  not 
think,  Mrs.  Eddy,  when  she  contemplates  her  foohsh 
following,  may  have  some  reason  to  believe;  but  she 
will  have  some  difficulty  in  satisfying  the  rest  of  us 
that  brains  do  not  possess  the  function  of  thought. 
I  think,  therefore  I  am  not  a  Christian  Scientist. 

Again:  "The  blood,  heart,  lungs,  brain,  etc.,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  life." 

When  this  impressive  passage  was  first  presented 
to  mv  darkened  mind,  I  was  incHned  to  believe  it  to 


62  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

contain  no  element  of  truth;  but  I  am  persuaded 
that  there  is  a  grain  of  truth  in  it.  I  have  sat  in  a 
Christian  Science  church  repeatedly  and  have  seen  some 
thousands  of  people  with  open  mouths  and  ecstatic 
expressions  listening  to  material  from  the  platform 
wholly  unintelligible  to  those  who  read  it  and  wholly 
unintelligible  to  every  person  in  the  building  who 
heard  it;  and  I  have  come  slowly,  very  slowly  and 
regretfully,  to  the  conviction  that  it  is  true,  that 
amongst  large  masses  of  people  there  are  times  when 
the  brain  has  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  life. 
As  to  the  blood,  heart  and  lungs,  I  am  still  of  my 
early  prejudice  that  they  have  something  to  do  with 
life,  notwithstanding  Mrs.  Eddy's  affirmation  that 
God  has  informed  her  to  the  contrary. 

Again:  "Gender  also  is  a  quality,  a  characteristic 
of  mind  and  not  of  matter." 

It  is  all  in  your  mind.  You  are  a  man  or  a 
woman  according  as  you  think  you  are  a  man  or  a 
woman,  and  not  otherwise.  If  a  man  thinks  he 
is  a  woman,  and  if  a  woman  thinks  she  is  a  man,  that 
settles  it;  they  are. 

Again:  "The  less  mind  there  is  manifested  in 
matter,  the  better.  When  the  unthinking  lobster 
loses  his  claw,  it  grows  again.  If  the  science  of 
life  were  understood,  it  would  be  found  that  the 
senses  of  mind  are  never  lost  and  that  matter  has 
no  sensation.  Then  the  human  limb  would  be 
replaced  as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw." 

This  makes  it  plain  that,  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  stand- 
point, the  less  mind,  the  better;  the  less  mind,  the 


THE    FAKED    REVELATION  63 

more  Christian  Scientists;  the  more  Christian  Scien- 
tists, the  more  revenue;  the  more  revenue,  the  greater 
glory  for  impostors  and  charlatans.  And,  oh,  wonder 
of  wonders!  God  here  informs  us,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  speak 
the  truth,  that  the  loss  of  a  human  leg  will  be  but 
a  temporary  inconvenience  when  man  has  advanced 
to  the  high  stage  attained  by  the  wholly  mindless 
lobster ! 

Again:  "Man  is  the  same  after,  as  before,  a  bone 
is  broken  or  a  head  chopped  off." 

And  so,  the  head  follows  the  lungs,  and  the  blood, 
and  the  heart,  and  the  brains,  and  the  stomach,  and 
the  bowels,  as  useless  members  of  the  human  body, 
if  Mrs.  Eddy  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  inspiration. 

Again:  ''That  life  is  sustained  by  food,  drink,  air, 
etc.,  that  it  is  organic  or  in  the  least  dependent  upon 
matter  or  sustained  by  it,  is  a  myth." 

Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  that  there  is  no  reality  in 
matter.  When  she  sits  down  at  her  table  three 
times  a  day  and  puts  into  her  immaterial  and  non- 
existent stomach  unrealities  in  the  shape  of  bread 
and  butter  and  beef  steak  and  tea  and  coffee,  and 
so  on,  life  is  sustained  by  the  belief  that  the  food 
sustains  life,  and  not  by  the  food  itself.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  have  Mrs.  Eddy  demonstrate  in  her 
own  daily  life  that  the  partaking  of  what  we  grosser 
persons  regard  as  food  indispensable  to  the  survival 
of  the  physical  organism  could  be  wholly  dispensed 
with  and  life,  notwithstanding,  continue. 

And,  finally,  and  I  commend  this  precious  gem  of 
truth  to  those  of  my  readers  who  are  pareilts,  be  they 


04  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

fathers  or  mothers,  and  who  agree  with  me  that  the 
loveUest  of  all  lovely  things  in  the  world  is  the  whole- 
some baby  enjoying  his  morning  bath:  "The  daily 
ablutions  of  an  infant  are  no  more  natural  or  necessary 
than  would  be  the  process  of  taking  a  fish  out  of 
the  water  every  day  and  covering  it  with  dirt,  in 
order  to  make  it  thrive  more  vigorously  thereafter 
in  its  native  element." 

To  bathe  a  baby  is  the  same  thing  as  to  grab  a 
fish  out  of  the  water  and  rub  it  all  over  with  mud! 
If  it  were  of  mere  "human  origin,"  Mrs.  Eddy  would 
"blush"  to  deliver  herself  of  that  beautiful  and 
"absolute"  truth. 

This  twaddle  inspired  of  God!  And  these  selec- 
tions, taken  at  random  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  of 
which,  she  says,  not  she  but  God  was  author,  are  of 
a  piece  with  the  thing  as  a  whole. 

I  am  told,  as  I  have  said,  that  there  are  intelli- 
gent persons  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  following,  and  yet  such 
things  as  those  I  have  quoted  slap  intelligence  in  the 
face  from  every  page  of  her  book;  and  her  friends, 
nevertheless,  persist  in  affirming,  "Lo,  the  Lord's 
anointed,  God's  voice  to  this  age!" 

"I  cannot  see,"  says  Mark  Twain,  "how  any  one 
contemplating  Mrs.  Eddy's  career  can  deny  to  the 
Divine  Being  the  possession  of  a  sense  of  humor." 
God  is  so  amused  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  accomplishments 
that  He  is  provoked  to  laughter,  and  Christian 
Science  thus  escapes  the  consuming  fire  of  Divine 
wrath. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Fiction  of  God's  Authorship 

GOD,  we  are  told,  is  without  variableness  or 
shadow  of  turning,  and  yet,  if  He  were  the 
author  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  He  would  be  as  change- 
able as  a  weathercock,  for  the  book,  throughout  its 
numerous  editions,  has  in  the  past  thirty-five  years 
undergone  continuous  change  and  revision  at  the 
hands  of  the  literary  expert,  and  the  final  product  is 
so  unlike  the  original  as  to  be  almost  unrecognizable. 
Chapters  have  been  dropped,  chapters  have  been 
added  and  chapters  have  been  shifted  about  from 
one  place  to  another,  and  the  book  has  been  as 
coherent  at  the  end  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  process. 
Early  editions,  with  compromising  contents,  have 
been  suppressed  at  great  expense,  and  the  book,  as 
now  published,  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  work  only  in  part. 
She  says  herself  that  read  backward  it  has,  in  part, 
as  much  meaning  as  read  forward;  and  those  of  you, 
who  have  attempted  to  read  it  forward,  have  dis- 
covered that,  so  read,  it  has  precisely  as  little  mean- 
ing as  if  read  backward. 

James  Henry  Wiggin,  an  ex-Unitarian  minister, 
recently  deceased,  was  for  years  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary 
expert,  putting  all  her  productions,  including  her 
book,  into  good  English,  and  into  as  coherent  a  form 

65 


66  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

as  she  would  permit.  He  wrote  a  sermon  for  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  preach,  which  she  preached  as  her  own,  and 
subsequently  incorporated,  with  some  easily  per- 
ceptible additions  that  conspicuously  marred  Mr. 
Wiggin's  work,  in  her  God-inspired  book,  as  a  chapter 
entitled  "Wayside  Hints."  This  chapter  is  left  out 
of  the  latest  editions,  but  it  was  given  to  the  world 
with  the  rest  in  the  "thirty-sixth"  edition,  as  of 
God's  authorship. 

Mr.  Wiggin's  story  of  the  manner  in  which  a 
sermon  of  his  became  a  part  of  her  inspired  volume 
is  not  a  little  amusing. 

While  acting  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  friend  and 
guide  and  helper,  an  edition  of  "Science  and  Health" 
was  prepared  for  publication,  completely  written  and 
completely  set  up  in  type  and  electrotyped;  but  as  it 
contained  a  chapter  that  Mr.  Wiggin  regarded  as  in 
the  nature  of  a  Ubel  upon  several  living  persons, 
who  were  referred  to  and  attacked  by  name,  he 
endeavored  to  prevent  the  publication  until  that 
chapter  had  been  eliminated.  As  the  whole  book 
had  been  electrotyped,  the  fifteen  pages  composing 
this  chapter  could  not  be  taken  out,  unless  fifteen 
others  were  inserted  in  their  place,  without  involv- 
ing new  plates  of  all  the  succeeding  pages,  and  a 
large  consequent  expense.  So  the  publication  was 
withheld,  until  in  some  manner  fifteen  pages  could 
be  furnished  in  substitution  for  the  objectionable 
chapter. 

Just  at  this  time  it  happened  that  Mr.  Wiggin 
prepared  a  sermon  for  Mrs.   Eddy  to  preach.     He 


THE    FICTION    OF    GOd's    AUTHORSHIP  67 

attended  the  service  at  which  the  sermon  was  de- 
Hvered  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  her  own  composition,  al- 
though she  read  it  from  a  manuscript  furnished  by 
him.  As  Mrs.  Eddy  attempted  to  read  without 
spectacles,  which  she  never  used  in  public  and  always 
used  in  her  private  intercourse  with  Mr.  Wiggin,  her 
rendering  of  the  sermon  was,  in  Mr.  Wiggin's  opinion, 
halting  and  ineffective,  and  it  irritated  him  not  a 
little  that  a  production  of  his  should  be  subjected 
to  such  handling  in  public.  But  after  the  service 
was  over,  Mr.  Wiggin,  walking  down  the  aisle  to  speak 
with  Mrs.  Eddy,  on  every  hand  heard  exclamations 
of  approval  in  more  or  less  superlative  terms.  "Wasn't 
it  grand !  Wasn't  she  inspired  today !  How  beautiful 
her  sermons  are!"  and  so  on,  until  Mr.  Wiggin's 
irritation  was  quite  allayed,  and  he  concluded  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  not  done  badly  after  all.  Reaching  the 
platform,  Mrs.  Eddy  leaned  over  and  whispered, 
"How  did  it  go  off?"  "Splendidly,"  said  Mr. 
Wiggin,  "I  have  an  idea."  "What  is  it?"  inquired 
Mrs.  Eddy.  "This  sermon  is  just  what  we  need 
for  those  fifteen  pages.  All  of  these  people  have 
heard  you  preach  it  today,  it  will  be  assumed  that 
you  wrote  it,  and  it  will  just  about  fill  the  space  we 
want  to  fill  in  the  book,  and  the  publication  need  be 
no  longer  delayed."  "Fine  idea!"  said  the  preacher 
of  Mr.  Wiggin's  sermon.  "Will  you  make  it  fit  in 
those  fifteen  pages,  so  it  can  just  take  their  place?" 
He  said  he  would.  He  did,  and  it  appeared  as  a 
chapter  entitled  "Wayside  Hints,"  in  the  thirty-sixth 
and  some  later  editions. 


68  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Many  a  time  have  I  heard  Mr.  Wiggm  say,  with 
a  chuckle  of  amusement,  that  it  was  a  source  of  much 
mirth  to  him  to  hear  from  time  to  time  Mrs.  Eddy's 
devotees  exclaim,  with  pious  earnestness,  that  the 
chapter  he  had  written,  at  so  much  per  word,  was 
the  very  most  divinely-inspired  portion  of  the  divine 
volume. 

Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  hesitate  to  declare  herself  the 
authorized  interpreter  of  the  Bible,  authorized  ex- 
pressly by  Christ  himself.  The  rules  of  the  Christian 
Science  organization  and  the  "Mother  Church"  were 
all  formulated  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  under  divine  guid- 
ance, and  she  reaches  so  far  into  the  proceedings  of 
the  so-called  branch  churches  all  over  the  land  as 
to  dictate  every  detail  of  the  religious  services,  and 
has  required  that  every  so-called  sermon  in  a  Chris- 
tian Science  church  shall  be  preceded  by  the  follow- 
ing declaration:  "The  canonical  writings,  together 
with  the  word  of  our  text-book  [her  book  "Science 
and  Health"],  coiToborating  and  explaining  the  Bible 
tests  in  their  spiritual  import  and  application  to  all 
ages,  past,  present  and  future,  constitute  a  sermon 
undivorced  from  truth,  uncontaminated  and  un- 
fettered by  human  hypotheses,  and  authorized  by 
Christ  r' 

That  is  either  true  or  false.  If  it  is  true,  all  man- 
kind should  know  it.  If  it  is  false,  it  is  as  wicked  a 
falsehood  as  was  ever  told. 

Having  lectured  to  immense  crowds  upon  Chris- 
tian Science  from  one  end  of  this  country  to  the 
other,  I  have  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  demand  of 


THE    FICTION    OF    GOD's    AUTHORSHIP  69 

official  Christian  Scientists  in  the  audience,  especially 
first  readers,  so  called,  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  churches,  who 
as  such  had  read  the  declaration  I  have  just  quoted, 
standing  face  to  face  with  them,  that  they  arise 
and  give  some  scintilla  of  warrant  or  authority  for 
the  making  of  the  declaration  that  Mrs.  Eddy's 
book  was  "authorized  by  Christ"  as  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Bible;  but  I  have  never  had  the  slightest 
response,  for  the  reason,  of  course,  that  no  evidence 
can  in  any  form  be  produced  of  the  truth  of  this 
declaration  falsely  formulated  and  by  her  sacrile- 
giously required  to  be  publicly  read  at  every  Sunday 
service  in  every  Christian  Science  Church.  All  of 
these  official  Christian  Scientists  know  that  this 
declaration  is  without  warrant,  all  of  them  know 
it  is  utterly  false;  and  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  makes  it, 
deliberately  knowing  it  to  be  untrue,  knowing  that 
she  has  and  can  produce  no  scrap  of  any  kind  of 
warrant  for  it,  and  she  makes  it  and  compels  its 
repetition  in  her  churches  only  to  carry  out  her  fraud 
and  imposition  that  there  is  a  sacred  character  to, 
and  a  Christian  warrant  for,  her  utterly  bogus 
"religion." 

This,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  most  audacious  things 
this  utterly  unprincipled  woman  in  her  whole  career 
has  dared  to  do;  and  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  real 
Christian  entertaining  toward  her,  because  of  it, 
feelings  other  than  those  of  pronounced  resentment 
and  indignation. 

Nothing  but  an  insane  mind,  a  degenerate  mind 
or  a  mind  possessed  of  an  overmastering  passion  to 


70  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

perpetrate  a  monstrous  fraud  upon  the  human  race 
could,  with  the  aid  of  the  Hterary  expert,  have 
written  "Science  and  Health,"  and  then  have  de- 
clared God  to  be  its  author;  and  no  one  but  an 
utterly  irreligious,  irreverent,  wicked  person  could 
invent  the  fiction  of  Christ's  authorization  and  compel 
its  promulgation  at  "religious"  services.  But  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  done  precisely  these  things  and  her  fol- 
lowers believe  her  irreverent  and  audacious  claims. 

Truly,  "The  absurdity  the  human  race  can't 
swallow,  hasn't  been  invented  yet!'' 

After  Eddyism  it  may  be  assumed,  I  think,  that 
man's  greatest  ingenuity  is  unequal  to  the  invention 
of  an  absurdity  so  immense  as  to  exceed  human 
gulpability.  The  more  monstrous  it  is,  the  more 
eagerly  it  is  clutched;  and  the  more  unintelligible  it 
is,  the  greater  is  the  certainty  that  it  must  have 
emanated  from  the  All-wise. 

But  let  me  do  Mrs.  Eddy  full  justice.  I  think 
I  have  read  everything  she  has  written,  and  one 
sentence  does  indeed  stand  out  vividly  by  itself, 
a  solitary  and  perfect  star  of  purest  ray  serene. 
Apropos  of  her  basic  contention  (upon  which  the 
whole  Christian  Science  superstructure  rests,  and 
without  which  it  would  fall  to  the  ground)  that 
there  is  no  sensation  in  matter,  she  deprecates  the 
spanking  of  children,  because,  she  wisely  says,  "the 
use  of  the  rod  is  virtually  a  declaration  to  the  child's 
mind,  that  sensation  belongs  to  matter." 

Impossible  as  I  have  found  it  to  reach  the  under- 
standing  of   Christian   Scientists  by   arguments   ad- 


THE    FICTION    OF    GOD's    AUTHORSHIP  71 

dressed  to  their  intelligence,  I  strongly  incline  to  the 
idea  that  the  spanking  process  would  be  likely  to 
induce  more  or  less  vague  impressions  that  sensation 
does  actually  reside  in  the  material  of  which  these 
living  bodies  are  composed;  and  I  respectfully  sub- 
mit that  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  most 
effective  way  of  reaching  Mrs.  Eddy's  childish  follow- 
ers and  curing  them  of  their  strange  distemper  would 
be  the  considerate,  not  too  vigorous,  application,  all 
around,  after  the  manner  of  the  old  woman  who 
lived  in  a  shoe,  of  the  corrective  maternal  slipper. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  Sham  "Religion" 

MRS.  EDDY  describes  herself,  and  has  made  her 
followers  believe  her  to  be,  the  "discoverer 
and  founder  of  Christian  Science." 

It  is  very  easy  to  disprove  her  claim  to  dis- 
covery, and  to  show  her  foundation  stones  to  have 
been  theft  and  falsehood  and  fraud.  As  a  pretended 
"reUgion"  it  is  all  hers,  and  no  one  else  lays 
claim  to  it;  as  a  mental  healing  system,  it  is  none 
of  it  hers  and  her  pretensions  to  originality  are 
wholly  fictitious. 

Let  it  be  remembered,  always,  that  on  the  first 
page  of  her  book,  "Science  and  Health,"  as  pub- 
lished in  1898,  and  in  many  other  editions,  Mrs. 
Eddy  makes  her  claim  to  originality  and  revelation 
in  the  following  unequivocal  terms: 

"In  the  year  1866  I  discovered  the  science  of 
metaphysical  healing  and  named  it  Christian  Science. 
God  had  been  graciously  fitting  me  during  many 
years  for  a  final  revelation  of  the  absolute  principle 
of  scientific  mind  healing." 

If,  prior  to  1866,  God  had  been  "graciously  fitting" 
her  during  many  years  for  the  "final  revelation,"  it 
appears  that,  years  afterwards,  God's  work  was  not 
quite  completed  and  her  character  entirely  sublimated. 

72 


A    SHAM    "religion"  73 

Some  of  her  friends  in  Lynn,  in  1881,  fifteen  years 
after  the  date  of  her  alleged  revelation,  became  of 
the  opinion  that  she  was  not,  even  then,  abso- 
lutely perfect  and  withdrew  from  her  church  there, 
living,  in  writing,  as  their  reason,  "her  departure 
from  the  straight  and  narrow  road  which  alone  leads 
to  growth  of  Christ-like  virtue,  made  manifest  by 
frequent  ebullitions  of  temper,  love  of  money  and 
the  appearance  of  hypocrisy."  How  accurate  was 
this  early  estimate  of  the  woman  as  shown  by  every 
known  act  of  her  life ! 

The  writer  of  the  series  of  articles  in  McClure's 
Magazine  on  Christian  Science  told  me  she  had  heard 
the  criticism  that  it  contained  only  the  bad  things 
about  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  had  been  asked  why  she 
had  not  incorporated  such  good  things  as  might  be 
said  of  her.  She  assured  me  she  had  searched  the 
whole  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  for  a  kindly,  a  generous, 
an  unselfish,  a  fine  womanly  deed,  and  would  have 
been  only  too  glad  to  have  recorded  it,  but  had  not 
found  one  —  not  one  such  act  in  the  long  life  of 
more  than  fourscore  years. 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  discovery,  and  commits  herself 
not  only  as  to  the  time  of  her  "discovery,"  but  as 
to  the  manner  of  it,  and  each  claim,  that  of  discovery, 
that  of  the  time  and  that  of  the  manner,  is  wholly 
and  demonstrably  false. 

In  October,  1862,  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Patterson  (now 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy)  placed  herself  in  the  hands  of 
Dr.  Phineas  P.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Maine,  for  treat- 
ment, with  the  result  described  by  herself  over  her 


74  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

own  signature  in   the   Portland  Evening   Courier,  of 
November  7,  1862,  as  follows: 

"Three  weeks  ago  I  quitted  my  nurse  and  sick- 
room en  route  for  Portland.  The  belief  of  my  re- 
covery had  died  out  of  the  hearts  of  those  who  were 
most  anxious  for  it.  With  this  mental  and  physical 
depression,  I  visited  P.  P.  Quimby,  and  in  less  than 
one  week  from  that  time  I  ascended  by  a  stairway 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  steps  to  the  dome  of 
the  City  Hall,  and  am  improving  ad  infinitum. 
This  truth  which  he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving 
intelligence  to  matter  and  placing  pain  where  it 
never  placed  itself,  if  received  understandingly, 
changes  the  currents  of  the  system  to  their  normal 
action  and  the  mechanism  of  the  body  goes  on 
undisturbed.  That  this  is  a  science  capable  of 
demonstration,  becomes  clear  to  the  minds  of  those 
patients  who  reason  upon  the  process  of  their  cure. 
The  truth  which  he  establishes  in  the  patient,  cures 
him  (although  he  may  be  wholly  unconscious  thereof) , 
and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  light,  is  no  longer  in 
disease." 

This  was  Mrs.  Patterson-Eddy's  professed  under- 
standing of  Dr.  Quimby 's  "science,"  in  1862,  after 
having  been  three  weeks  under  his  treatment,  and 
any  one  familiar  with  Christian  Science  will  not  need 
to  be  told  that  it  is  the  same  thing.  This  "truth," 
which  Mrs.  Patterson-Eddy  in  1862  said  Quimby 
opposed  to  the  "error"  of  placing  intelligence  in 
matter  and  which,  when  established  in  the  patient, 
cured  him,  is  the  very  same  "truth"  which  in  her 
book,  with  tireless  iteration,  Mrs.  Eddy  opposes  to 
the    very    same    alleged    "error,"    which    thereupon 


A   SHAM    "religion"  75 

effects  the  same  alleged  "cure."  Every  "Scientist" 
will  at  once  recognize  the  A  B  C  of  "divine  science." 

Dr.  Quimby,  who  is  spoken  of  by  a  lady,  who 
knew  him  well  at  the  time  Mrs.  Patterson-Eddy  was 
taking  his  treatment  and  stealing  his  system,  as  a 
man  of  "absolute  sincerity  and  purity  of  thought 
and  life,"  died  in  January,  1866,  and  Mrs.  Eddy,  then 
Mrs.  Patterson,  not  having  conceived  the  plan  of 
appropriating  to  herself  the  ideas  and  theories  she 
had  learned  from  him,  almost  immediately  after  his 
death  wrote  and  published  some  verses  about  him, 
in  which  she  compared  Quimby  with  Jesus.  She 
now  speaks  of  him  as  a  vulgar  mesmerist  or  magnetic 
healer  whose  scribblings  she  put  into  grammatical 
form;  she  then,  in  1866,  glorified  him  as  the  Christian 
glorifies  only  the  Saviour. 

These  verses,  as  here  presented,  are  copied  from 
a  copy  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  handwriting,  now  in  the 
possession  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosby  of  Waterville,  Maine, 
to  whom,  in  1866,  upon  the  death  of  Dr.  Quimby, 
she  sent  them: 

"Lines  on  the  Death  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  who 
Healed  the  Sick  as  did  Jesus,  in  contradistinction  to 
all  Isms. 

"Did  Sack-cloth  clothe  the  sun,  and  day  grow  night, 
All  matter  mourn  the  hour  with  dewy  eyes, 
When  Truth  receding  from  our  mortal  sight, 
Had  paid  to  error  her  last  sacrifice? 

"Can  we  forget  the  power  that  gave  us  hfe? 
Shall  we  forget  the  wisdom  of  our  way? 
Then  ask  me  not  amid  this  mortal  strife — 
This  keenest  pang  of  animated  clay. 


76  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

"To  mourn  him  less!     To  mourn  him  more  were  just, 
If  to  his  memory  'twere  a  tribute  given 
For  every  earnest,  solemn,  sacred  trust, 
Delivered  to  us  ere  he  rose  to  Heaven. 

"Heaven  but  the  happiness  of  his  calm  soul, 
Growing  in  stature  to  the  throne  of  God; 
Rest  should  reward  him  who  hath  made  us  whole, 
Seeking,  'tho  tremblers,  where  his  footsteps  trod." 

M.  M.  Patterson. 

Comment  cannot  add  to  the  force  of  these  verses. 
Inferior  as  poetry,  they  constitute  proof  and  argu- 
ment not  all  the  falsehoods  and  sophistries  in  the 
imagination  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  corps  of  ofificial 
defenders  can  meet  and  overcome. 

In  1866,  Mrs.  Eddy  reverently  declared  that 
Dr.  Quimby  had  "healed  the  sick  as  Jesus  did;" 
today  speaking  slightingly  of  the  good  old  man,  she 
says,  "his  healing  was  never  considered  anything 
but  mesmerism."  Then  she  gratefully  acknowledged 
that  he  had  made  her  "  whole  " ;  now  she  says  that  his 
mesmeric  treatment  gave  her  but  slight,  temporary 
relief.  Then,  not  having  contemplated  the  great 
theft,  she  spoke  of  the  "earnest,  solemn,  sacred 
trust"  delivered  to  her  and  others  by  the  trustful 
man;  now  she  repudiates  him  altogether,  and  denies 
that  she  received  any  helpful  suggestion  from  him. 
Then  she  spoke  of  herself  as  ''seeking,  though  a  trem- 
bler,  where  his  footsteps  trod;"  now  she  scornfully  says, 
"I  used  to  take  his  scribblings  and  fix  them  over  for 
him  and  give  him  my  thoughts  and  language  which, 
as  I  understand  it,  were  far  in  advance  of  his.'' 


A    SHAM    "religion"  77 

Can  anything  Mrs.  Eddy  says  be  believed,  after 
this?  Could  ingenuity  contrive  a  more  violent  con- 
tradiction in  human  speech?  Standing  absolutely 
alone,  would  anything  more  be  needed  to  convict 
her,  out  of  her  own  mouth,  of  the  basest  ingratitude 
and  the  most  reckless  fraud?  But  this  is  only  one 
of  a  thousand  items  in  the  accumulated  proof! 

If  Christian  Science  heaUng  is,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
all  other  Christian  Scientists  claim,  a  revival  of  the 
method  employed  by  Jesus,  then  Mrs.  Eddy  here, 
in  her  own  handwriting,  admits  that  she  learned  it 
from  Quimby.  There  is  no  possible  escape  from  one 
horn  or  the  other  of  the  dilemma  —  either  it  is  not 
Christian,  or  it  is  not  Mrs.  Eddy's.  It  requires  even 
less  intelHgence  than  Mrs.  Eddy's  friends  bring  to 
bear  upon  her  teachings  to  comprehend  the  con- 
clusiveness of  this  demonstration. 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  discover  the  Christian  Science 
method  of  attempting  to  heal.  Let  me  make  this 
a  little  clearer  by  demonstrating  the  falsity  of  her 
story  as  to  the  manner  in  which  she  made  the 
discovery. 

Dr.  Quimby  died  on  January  16,  1866,  and  the 
first  day  of  February,  1866,  Mrs.  Patterson-Eddy, 
then  living  in  Swampscott,  a  suburb  of  Lynn,  fell 
upon  the  icy  sidewalk  and  injured  herself;  and  she 
now  fixes  upon  her  alleged  miraculous  recovery  from 
this  injury  as  the  precise  way  in  which  she  made  her 
great  discovery  and  received  her  revelation. 

In  a  sketch,  published  by  her  concern,  The 
Christian  Science  Publishing  Society  of  Boston,  and 


78  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

endorsed  and  approved  by  her  as  an  authorized 
statement,  is  the  following  account  of  how  Mrs.  Eddy 
discovered  Christian  Science: 

"The  manner  of  the  discovery  has  been  vividly 
described.  In  company  with  her  husband,  she  was 
returning  from  an  errand  of  mercy,  when  she  fell 
upon  the  icy  curbstone,  and  was  carried  helpless  to 
her  home.  The  skilled  physicians  declared  that 
there  was  absolutely  no  hope  for  her,  and  pronounced 
the  verdict  that  she  had  but  three  days  to  live. 
Finding  no  hope  and  no  help  on  earth,  she  lifted  her 
heart  to  God.  On  the  third  day,  calling  for  her 
Bible,  she  asked  the  family  to  leave  the  room.  Her 
Bible  opened  to  the  healing  of  the  palsied  man. 
Matt.  ix.  2.  The  truth  which  set  him  free  she  saw. 
The  power  which  gave  him  strength  she  felt.  The 
life  divine  which  healed  the  sick  of  the  palsy  restored 
her,  and  she  rose  from  the  bed  of  pain  healed  and 
free." 

In  her  autobiography,  "Retrospection  and  Intro- 
spection," she  says: 

"It  was  in  Massachusetts,  February,  1866,  and 
after  the  death  of  the  magnetic  doctor,  Mr.  P.  P. 
Quimby,  whom  spiritualists  would  associate  there- 
with, but  who  was  in  no  wise  connected  with  this 
event,  that  I  discovered  the  science  of  Divine  Meta- 
physical healing,  which  I  afterward  named  Christian 
Science.  The  discovery  came  to  pass  in  this  way. 
During  twenty  years  prior  to  my  discovery  I  had 
been  trying  to  trace  all  physical  effects  to  a  mental 
cause;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  1866  I  gained  the 
scientific  certainty  that  all  causation  was  Mind,  and 
every  effect  a  mental  phenomenon. 

"My  immediate  recovery  from  the  effects  of  an 


A    SHAM    "religion"  79 

injury  caused  by  an  accident,  an  injury  that  neither 
medicine  rior  surgery  could  reach,  was  the  falhng 
apple  that  led  me  to  the  discovery  how  to  be  well 
myself  and  how  to  make  others  so. 

"Even  to  the  homeopathic  physician  who  at- 
tended me,  and  rejoiced  in  my  recovery,  I  could  not 
then  explain  the  modus  of  my  relief.  I  could  only 
assure  him  that  the  Divine  Spirit  had  wrought  the 
miracle,  a  miracle  which  later  I  found  to  be  in  perfect 
Scientific  accord  with  divine  law." 

Unfortunately  for  her  reputation  for  veracity  and 
fortunately  for  the  truth  of  history,  Dr.  Alvin  M. 
Gushing,  the  physician  who  attended  Mrs.  Eddy,  or 
Patterson,  upon  this  particular  occasion,  is  still 
living  and  as  an  honored  member  of  the  profession 
is  now  practising  in  Springfield,  Mass.  Dr.  Gushing 
expressly,  and  under  oath,  denies  that  he  at  any  time 
beheved  or  said  that  Mrs.  Patterson  was  in  a  critical 
condition,  or  that  there  was  no  hope  for  her,  or  that 
she  had  but  three  or  any  other  limited  number  of 
days  to  hve,  and  he,  with  great  positiveness,  says  that 
she  did  not,  on  the  third  day  or  any  other  day  of  her 
illness,  say,  or  suggest,  or  pretend,  or  in  any  way 
whatever  intimate  that  she  had  miraculously  re- 
covered or  been  healed,  or  that,  discovering  or  per- 
ceiving the  truth  of  the  power  employed  by  Ghrist 
to  heal  the  sick,  she  had,  by  it,  been  restored  to 
health,  and  he  further  says  that,  on  the  contrary, 
on  the  third  day  and  later  days  of  this  illness,  he 
himself  gave  her  medicine,  and  again  in  August  of 
the  same  year  called  upon  her  four  or  five  times  and 
gave  her  medicine. 


80  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Dr.  Gushing  still  has  his  record  book  in  which  he, 
at  the  time,  recorded  each  visit,  every  symptom  and 
every  particular  of  his  treatment. 

It  must  be  a  peculiar  type  of  mind  that  can 
believe  Mrs.  Eddy's  story  of  this  illness  and  re- 
covery, after  having  the  disinterested  version  of 
the  attending  physician.  There  is  no  reason  why 
Dr.  Cushing's  version  should  be  doubted.  There 
is  no  reason  whatever  why  Mrs.  Eddy's  should  be 
believed. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  furnishes,  as  usual, 
the  most  conclusive  evidence  of  the  falsity  of 
this  story  of  her  miraculous  cure.  Her  in- 
ventive faculty  has  ever  been  more  remarkable 
than  her  memory,  and  what  she  has  forgotten  con- 
tradicts her. 

On  "the  third  day,"  according  to  her  latest 
version,  she  "arose  from  the  bed  of  pain,  healed  and 
free,"  but  in  a  letter  dated  February  15,  1866,  two 
weeks  after  the  accident  and  while  she  was  still 
suffering  from  its  effects,  she  complained  that  she 
was  then  "slowly  failing,"  and  implored  Mr. 
Julius  Dresser,  to  whom  the  letter  was  written,  to 
help  her. 

Here  is  her  story  of  the  incident  as  written  at 
the  time: 

"Lynn,  Feb.  15,  1866. 
"Mr.  Dresser, — 

"Sir:  I  enclose  some  lines  of  mine  in  memory  of 
our  much-loved  Friend,  which  perhaps  you  will  not 
think  over-wrought  in  meaning,  others  must  of  course. 


A    SHAM    "religion"  81. 

"1  am  c®nstantly  wishing  thai  you  would  step 
forward  into  the  place  he  has  vacated.  I  beheve 
vou  would  do  a  vast  amount  of  good,  and  are  more 
capable  of  occupying  his  place  than  any  other  I 
know  of. 

"Two  weeks  ago  I  fell  on  the  sidewalk  and  struck 
my  back  on  the  ice  and  was  taken  up  for  dead,  came 
to  consciousness  amid  a  storm  of  vapors  from  cologne, 
chloroform,  ether,  camphor,  etc.,  but  to  find  myself 
the  helpless  cripple  I  was  before  I  saw  Dr.  Quimby. 

"The  physician  attending  said  I  had  taken  the 
last  step  I  ever  should,  but  in  two  days  I  got  out  of 
my  bed  alone,  and  ivill  walk,  but  yet  I  confess  I  am 
frightened,  and  out  of  that  nervous  heat  my  friends 
are  forming,  spite  of  me,  the  terrible  spinal  affection 
from  which  I  have  suffered  so  long  and  hopelessly. 
Now  can't  you  help  me.  I  beheve  you  can. 
I  write  this  with  this  feeling:  I  think  I  could  help 
another  in  my  condition,  if  they  had  not  placed  their 
intelHgence  in  matter.  This  I  have  not  done  and 
vet  /  am  sloivly  failing.  Won't  you  write  me  if  you 
will  undertake  for  me  if  I  can  get  to  you?  .  .  . 
' '  Respectfully, 

"Mary  M.  Patterson." 

'  Not  to  comment  upon  the  singularity  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  chloroform  and  ether  to  an  un- 
conscious person,  it  sufficeth  to  call  attention  to  the 
manner  in  which  again  Mrs.  Patterson  contradicts 
Mrs.  Eddy.  She  furnishes  the  most  effective  kind 
of  corroboration  of  Dr.  Gushing,  and  the  whole  thing 
is  clearly  seen  to  be  an  invention,  so  far  as  any 
unusual  or  peculiar  or  miraculous  features  are  con- 
cerned. It  is  clear  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  discover 
Christian  Science  in  the  manner  claimed. 


82  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

So  much  for  that  particular,  and  particularly  silly 
perversion  of  the  truth,  and  invention  of  the  fictitious. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  herself  made  it  especially  easy  to 
prove  her  revelation  to  be  a  fraud  and  has  supplied 
us  with  a  form  of  proof  especially  convincing.  It  is 
conceivable  that  a  claim  to  revelation,  however 
intrinsically  idiotic,  might  be  made,  the  legal  dis- 
proof of  which  might  be  difficult;  but  if  I  today  say 
God  revealed  something  to  me  a  year  ago,  and  if 
you  find  many  persons  of  excellent  character  who 
tell  you  that  three,  four,  five,  six  and  seven  months 
ago  I  openly,  by  word  of  mouth,  and  in  writing,  times 
without  number,  admitted  having  learned  the  whole 
thing  from  John  Smith,  it  will  be  impossible  to 
believe  that  God  revealed  it  to  me  and  to  me  alone. 
This  is  precisely  the  case  with  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
Christian  Science  "religion."  Her  oft-repeated  ad- 
missions of  appropriation  disprove  her  "revelation" 
completely. 

Absolutely  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fraudulent 
character  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  to  originahty,  either 
by  discovery  or  revelation,  has  come  to  light,  and 
any  one,  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  examine  it, 
will  have  no  difficulty  in  arriving  at  positive  certainty 
in  the  matter. 

Now,  remembering  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  to  discovery 
by  revelation  from  God  in  1866,  let  us  see  what  she 
was  doing  in  1867,  1868,  1869  and  1870,  the  years 
immediately  following  her  alleged  discovery. 

Some  years  ago  I  delivered  an  address  in  Boston 
upon  Christian  Science  that  was  extensively  reported 


A    SHAM    "religion"  83 

in  the  newspapers,  and  a  day  or  two  following  the 
delivery  of  the  lecture  a  gentleman  called  at  my 
office  and  introduced  himself  as  Horace  T.  Went- 
worth  of  Stoughton,  Mass.  He  asked  me  if  I  knew 
that  in  1868,  1869  and  1870  Mrs.  Eddy  had  lived 
with  his  mother,  Mrs.  Sally  Wentworth,  at  Stoughton. 

I  assured  Mr.  Wentworth  that  I  had  not  heard  of 
it,  and   asked  him  what   she  was   doing   while  there. 

"Why,  she  was  teaching  my  mother  Dr.  P.  P. 
Quimby's  system  of  mental  healing,"  said  Mr.  Went- 
worth, "and  I  have  in  my  pocket  my  mother's  copy 
of  the  manuscript  from  which  Mrs.   Eddy  taught." 

Mr.  Wentworth  pulled  the  manuscript  out  of  his 
pocket  and  handed  it  to  me.  It  was  entitled,  on  the 
front  page,  "Extracts  from  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby's  Writ- 
ings." I  glanced  through  the  manuscript  and  dis- 
covered that  it  was  copiously  corrected  and  interlined 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  handwriting  and  contained  an  intro- 
duction signed  by  her  name.  Perusal  of  it  showed 
it  to  be  in  every  particular  precisely  the  same  thing 
as  Mrs.  Eddy's  Christian  Science  teachings  regarding 
the  cure  of  disease. 

This  was  a  most  interesting  discovery,  and  I 
carefully  investigated  the  whole  situation,  made 
several  trips  to  Stoughton  for  the  purpose,  and  talked 
with  many  residents  of  the  place  who  had  known 
Mrs.  Eddy  well,  and  were  perfectly  familiar  with 
her  history  while  there.  I  subsequently  procured 
the  whole  story  in  writing,  under  oath,  by  those  who 
knew  it  personally.  Since  then,  others  following  my 
published    accounts,   have    detailed    the     Stoughton 


84  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

episode  and  McC lure's  Magazine  published  it  in 
full. 

It  appears  that  in  1867,  Mrs.  Eddy,  then  Mrs. 
Patterson,  went  to  Stoughton  to  live.  She  had 
separated  from  her  second  husband,  Daniel  Patter- 
son, and  not  having  then  married  her  third  husband, 
Eddy,  called  herself,  and  was  known  by  the  name 
of  her  first  husband,  Mary  M.  Glover. 

Mrs.  Glover  first  lived  at  Stoughton  with  one 
Hiram  Crafts,  and  taught  Crafts  from  manuscript  a 
system  of  mental  healing  she  told  Crafts  she  had 
learned  from  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby.  After  learning  it, 
Crafts  undertook  to  practise  it  and  had  announce- 
ments printed  and  circulated  declaring  his  system 
to  have  been  the  discovery  of  Dr.  Quimby. 

But  Mrs.  Glover  and  Mrs.  Crafts  did  not  seem  to 
find  one  another's  society  especially  enjoyable,  and 
for  a  time,  Mrs.  Crafts  left  Mrs.  Glover  in  possession. 
In  1868,  upon  the  invitation  of  Mrs.  Sally  Went- 
worth,  Mrs.  Glover  moved  to  the  Wentworths' 
house  at  Stoughton,  where  she  continued  to  live  until 
1870. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  writings  will  be  searched  in  vain  for 
any  reference  to  Mrs.  Wentworth,  or  to  the  fact  that 
she  spent  about  three  years  in  the  Wentworths' 
house  at  Stoughton;  but,  in  characteristic  fashion, 
she  hides  the  facts  under  this  obscure  and  oracular 
utterance : 

"I  then  (1866),  withdrew  from  society,  about 
three  years,  to  ponder  my  mission,  to  search  the 
Scriptures,  to  find  the  Science  of  Mind  that  should 


A    SHAM    "religion"  85 

take  the  things  of  God  and  show  them  to  the  creature, 
and  reA^eal  the  great  Curative  Principle,  God." 

Mrs.  Wentworth  invited  Mrs.  Glover  to  live  with 
her  and  teach  her  the  Quimby  science  of  mind  heal- 
ing, and  that  is  what  Mrs.  Glover  did  during  the  three 
years  she  was  a  member  of  Mrs.  Wentworth's  family. 
She  "pondered  her  mission,"  etc.,  by  avowedly  teach- 
ing Dr.  Quimby 's  alleged  science  of  mind  healing,  and 
she  gave  Mrs.  Wentworth  a  copy  of  her,  Mrs.  Glover's, 
manuscript  copy  of  Quimby 's  writings.  This  copy 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  copy  of  what  she  then  said  were 
Quimby 's  writings,  in  Mrs.  Wentworth's  handwriting 
and  containing  corrections  and  interlineations  in  the 
handwriting  of  Mrs.  Glover-Eddy,  is  the  manuscript 
now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Wentworth's  son, 
Horace  T.  Wentw^orth  of  Stoughton,  Mass. 

During  Mrs.  Glover's  sojourn  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's, 
the  household  consisted,  besides  Mrs.  Wentworth  and 
her  guest,  of  her  husband,  Mr.  Alanson  C.  Went- 
worth, and  their  two  children,  Lucy  and  Charles  O. 
Wentworth.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wentworth  died  in  1882, 
but  Lucy  and  Charles  O.  and  Horace  T.  Wentworth 
are  still  living,  and  they,  with  their  cousin,  Mrs. 
Catherine  L  Clapp,  who  was  much  at  their  house 
during  Mrs.  Glover's  visit,  have  stated  the  facts 
under  oath  and  in  such  a  manner  that  they  must  be 
believed. 

Lucy  Wentworth,  now  Mrs.  Arthur  L.  Holmes, 
w^as  about  seventeen  years  of  age  when  Mrs.  Glover 
left  her  mother's  house.  Mrs.  Holmes,  who  still  Hves 
at   Stoughton,   says  that   she   well   remembers   Mrs. 


86  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

Glover's  visit,  and  that  she  was  teaching  her  mother 
a  system  of  mental  healing  she  said  she  had  learned 
from  Dr.  Quimby. 

'"It  wasn't  safe  for  anybody  to  say  anything  to 
me  against  Mrs.  Glover,'  says  Mrs.  Holmes.  'She 
spent  all  her  time  teaching  my  mother  her  new 
science.  I  was  around  her  constantly,  would  rather 
be  with  her  than  with  any  one  else,  and  I  often  used 
to  hear  her  say,  "I  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby." 
It  is  one  of  the  distinct  recollections  of  my  child- 
hood.'" 

Charles  O.  Wentworth,  now  of  Avon,  Mass.,  says 
he,  too,  well  remembers  Mrs.  Eddy's  visit  during  the 
years  1868,  1869  and  1870,  and  that  he  many  times 
heard  her  say  she  had  learned  her  mental  science 
from  Dr.  Quimby.  He  says  she  avowed  it  openly, 
and  always  spoke  of  it  as  Dr.  Quimby 's  system. 

Horace  T.  Wentworth,  who  was  married  and  so 
not  living  at  home  with  his  parents,  but  who  was 
often  at  their  house,  adds  his  positive  testimony. 
He  says: 

"Never  at  any  time  during  the  years  she  was  at 
our  house,  from  1868  to  1870,  did  Mrs.  Glover  give 
the  slightest  hint  that  any  one  other  than  Dr.  Quimby 
had  had  any  share  in  the  origin  of  the  system  of 
mental  healing  she  was  teaching  my  mother.  It 
could  not  then  have  entered  her  mind  to  claim  it  for 
herself.  That  was  an  afterthought.  I  heard  Mrs. 
Glover  over  and  over  again  say  she  got  it  all  from 
Quimby." 

Mrs.  Clapp's  statement  is  even  more  specific  than 
the  others.     She  is  own  cousin  to  the  Wentworths 


A    SHAM    "religion"  87 

and  frequented  their  house  at  the  time  Mrs.  Glover 
was  visiting  them,  and  knew  that  Mrs.  Glover  was 
teaching  Mrs.  Wentworth  the  Quimby  system. 

When  Mrs.  Clapp  was  recently  asked  if  she  had 
ever  heard  Mrs.  Glover-Eddy  say  that  she  learned 
her  system  from  Dr.  Quimby,  she  replied: 

"Yes,  and  I  am  not  likely  to  forget  it.  It  is 
fixed  in  my  memory  by  a  very  reprehensible  proceed- 
ing of  my  own.  You  see,  Mrs.  Glover  used  to  say 
this  to  everybody  who  came  in.  She  wasn't  content 
with  mentioning  once  or  twice  that  she  had  learned 
this  from  Dr.  Quimby,  she  repeated  it  so  often  that 
we  girls  got  deadly  tired  of  hearing  it. 

"Now  Mrs.  Glover  not  only  said  it  to  the  point  of 
wearying  us,  but  she  had  a  peculiar  way  of  saying  it, 
and  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  I  used  to  mock  her  — 
I,  a  young  lady  grown,  who  ought  to  have  known 
better  than  to  make  fun  of  a  person  so  much  older. 

"She  always  tried  to  be  very  gracious  to  every- 
body and  she  tried  so  hard  that  it  gave  her  gracious- 
ness  a  ridiculous  touch.  She  would  fold  her  hands 
softly  in  her  lap,  smile  gently,  nod  her  head  slowly 
at  almost  every  word,  and  say  in  a  sweet  voice,  *I 
learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby  and  he  made  me  promise 
to  teach  it  to  at  least  two  persons  before  I  die.' 

"Well,  this  tiresome  iteration,  always  with  the 
same  emphasis  and  the  same  exaggerated  gracious- 
ness,  used  to  excite  the  derision  of  the  girls,  and  when 
Mrs.  Glover  wasn't  in  hearing,  I  would  take  her  off. 
I  would  say,  'I  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby,'  etc., 
at  the  same  time  nodding  my  head  with  a  great 
exaggeration  of  Mrs.  Glover's  gentle  inclination,  and 
putting  tremendous  emphasis  on  the  words  she  em- 
phasized, and  wearing  a  fixed  smile. 

"I  know  it  was  an  awful  thing  to  do,"  added  Mrs. 


88  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Clapp,  penitently,  "especially  for  a  grown-up  girl, 
but  it  used  to  make  my  cousins  laugh  and  that  made 
me  feel  that  I  had  done  something  clever.  Anyway, 
you  see  how  it  has  fixed  it  on  my  m.emor)^" 

Mrs.  Clapp  well  remembered  seeing  Mrs.  Went- 
worth  copy  Mrs.  Glover's  copy  of  Dr.  Quimby's 
writing. 

"I  once  went  to  the  Went  worths'  to  get  some- 
thing," she  said,  "and  Mrs.  Wentworth  was  busy 
copying  this  manuscript.  I  went  to  the  buttery  to 
get  what  I  wanted,  but  couldn't  find  it,  and  called 
Mrs.  Wentworth.  She  got  up  to  get  it  for  me,  but 
before  doing  so  she  put  Mrs.  Eddy's  copy  of  the 
Quimby  m.anuscript  in  the  desk  and  locked  it.  I 
suppose  I  looked  surprised  that  she  should  take 
such  pains  when  she  was  only  stepping  across  the 
room  for  a  moment,  and  she  noticed  my  look,  and 
said,  'Mrs.  Glover  m.ade  me  proriiise  never  to  leave 
this  manuscript  even  for  a  moment  without  locking 
the  desk.'  " 

While  Mrs.  Wentworth  was  copying  the  Quimby 
manuscript,  Mrs.  Clapp  was  employed  by  Mrs. 
Glover  to  copy  a  manuscript  of  her  own  for  publica- 
tion. This  manuscript  contained  the  first  expres- 
sion of  the  ideas  subsequently  given  to  the  world  by 
Mrs.  Eddy.  When  the  book  was  completed,  Mrs. 
Glover  paid  Mrs.  Clapp  for  the  work  and  took  it  to 
Boston,  but  could  not  get  a  publisher  to,  accept  it. 

Mrs.  Clapp  was  quite  familiar  with  the  appearance 
of  the  Quimby  manuscript  from  seeing  Mrs.  Went- 
worth copying  it  —  she  was  Mrs.  Wentworth's  niece 
—  and  also  from  seeing  Mrs.  Glover  take  it  out  to 


A    SHAM    "religion"  89 

correct  some  of  the  work  which  Mrs.  Clapp  was  doing. 
That  would  happen  in  this  way.  Mrs.  Clapp  would 
complete  the  copying  of  a  page  of  Mrs.  Glover's  book. 
Mrs.  Glover  would  appear  to  be  dissatisfied  with  it; 
she  would  take  from  her  desk  the  original  Quimby 
manuscript,  the  one  from  which  Mrs.  Wentworth 
had  been  copying,  and  compare  this  original  with  the 
work  Mrs.  Clapp  had  done.  Then  she  would  tear  up 
Mrs.  Clapp 's  page  and  write  it  all  over  again,  con- 
sulting the  Quimby  manuscript  as  she  did  so,  and 
Mrs.  Clapp  would  have  the  copying  to  do  over 
again. 

The  unmistakable  inference  was  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  making  her  book  out  of  the  ideas  contained  in  the 
original  Quimby  manuscript.  Mrs.  Clapp,  with  the 
irreverence  of  girlhood,  had  scant  respect  for  the 
weighty  ideas  contained  in  the  Quimby-Glover  book, 
and  there  was  one  particular  idea  which  she  used  to 
scoff  at  and  make  fun  of  to  her  intimates.  It  was  to 
this  effect: 

"The  daily  ablutions  of  an  infant  are  no  more 
natural  or  necessary  than  would  be  the  process  of 
taking  a  fish  out  of  water  every  day  and  covering  it 
with  dirt  to  make  it  thrive  more  ^dgorously  there- 
after in  its  native  element." 

Years  afterward,  Mrs.  Clapp  picked  up  a  copy  of 
"Science  and  Health,"  and  opened  it  to  this  identical 
sentence  which  had  so  often  excited  her  girlish 
derision.     It  is  on  page  41,  edition  of  1898. 

When  Mrs.  Wentworth  died,  in  1882,  and  the 
property  was  divided,  the  son  Horace  laid  claim  to 


90  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

the  copy  of  the  Quimby  manuscript.  He  wanted  it 
because  it  was  in  his  mother's  handwriting  (with  the 
exception  of  Eddy's  corrections),  and  it  would  be  a 
souvenir  of  her.  He  kept  it  with  no  other  thought 
until  now. 

"But  of  late  years,"  said  Mr.  Wentworth,  "as  I 
have  seen  the  amazing  spread  of  this  delusion,  and 
the  way  in  which  men  and  women  are  offering  up 
money  and  the  lives  of  their  children  to  it,  I  have 
felt  that  it  is  a  duty  I  owe  to  the  public  to  make  it 
known. 

"I  have  no  hard  feelings  against  Mrs.  Eddy,  no 
axe  to  grind,  no  interest  to  serve,  I  simply  feel  that 
it  is  due  the  thousands  of  good  people,  who  have 
made  Christian  Science  the  anchorage  of  their  souls 
and  its  founder  the  infallible  guide  of  their  daily  life, 
to  keep  this  no  longer  to  myself.  I  desire  only  that 
people  who  take  themselves  and  their  helpless  chil- 
dren into  Christian  Science  shall  do  so  with  a  full 
knowledge  that  this  is  not  a  divine  revelation,  but 
simply  the  idea  of  an  old-time  Maine  healer." 

It  may  be  assumed  then,  as  proven,  that  as  in 
1868,  1869  and  1870  Mrs.  Glover  (Eddy)  was  teach- 
ing a  system  of  mental  healing  she,  at  the  time,  said 
she  had  learned  from  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  she  couldn't 
have  discovered  it  herself  in  1866.  It  now  becomes 
interesting  to  know  if  there  is  any  similarity  between 
what  we  may  call  Quimbyism  and  Christian  Science, 
between  the  teaching  of  Mrs.  Glover-Eddy  in  1870 
and  her  teaching  now. 

On  the  outside,  this  Quimby-Glover  manuscript 
is  entitled,  "Extracts  From  Doctor  P.  P.  Quimby 's 
Writings,"  and  at  the  head  of  the  first  page,  on  the 


A    SHAM    "religion"  91 

inside,  it  is  further  entitled,  "The  Science  of  Man, 
or  The  Principle  Which  Controls  all  Phenomena." 

There  is  a  preface  of  two  pages  with  Mary  M. 
Glover's  name  signed  at  the  end.  The  "Extracts" 
are  in  the  form  of  fifteen  questions  and  answers,  cover- 
ing about  thirty  large  pages,  and  are  labeled,  "Ques- 
tions by  Patients  and  Answers  by  Dr.  Quimby." 
The  document  contains  an  elaboration  of  Dr.  Quimby 's 
mental  healing  system  as  taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  by 
her  own  acknowledgment,  as  late  as  1870. 

The  contents  of  this  Quimby-Glover  manuscript 
having  been  communicated  to  Mr.  George  A.  Quimby 
of  Belfast,  Maine,  son  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  he  says, 
having  compared  it  with  his  father's  writings  in  his 
possession,  that  it  is  a  precise  copy  of  them.  He 
further  says  that  an  opportunity  was  afforded  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  copy  his  father's  writings,  as  his  father  was 
accustomed  to  lend  his  manuscript  to  his  patients, 
one  of  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  was. 

A  perusal  of  this  manuscript  in  comparison  with 
Mrs.  Eddy's  "Science  and  Health"  shows,  that 
every  basic  idea  of  Christian  Science  as  a  healing 
system  was  bodily  appropriated  by  her  from  Dr. 
Quimby's  manuscripts  and  not  obtained,  as  she  says, 
by  revelation  from  God.  As  contained  in  the  manu- 
script and  as  taught  by  Dr.  Quimby,  there  was  no 
suggestion  of  a  religious  character  to  his  teachings; 
the  religious  phase  was  an  afterthought  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  as  a  means  of  facihtating  the  sale  and  dis- 
tribution of  her  profit-yielding,  copyrighted  and 
"inspired"  writings. 


92 


THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 


It  may  be  here  remarked  that,  at  the  outset, 
Mrs.  Eddy  especially  deprecated  the  giving  to 
Quimbyism,  or  Christian  Science,  a  religious  char- 
acter, as  I  shall  hereafter  show  in  more  detail,  and 
she  goes  so  far  as  to  criticise  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
for  founding,  as  she  says,  religious  organizations 
and  church  rites. 

Thus,  at  first,  healing  was  the  only  phase  of 
Christian  Science.  The  religious  feature  was  a  sub- 
sequent invention. 

Quimbyism,  as  contained  in  Mrs.  Wentw^orth's 
copy  of  Mrs.  Glover's  copy  of  Dr.  Quimby's  ''Science 
of  Man,"  as  revised  and  corrected  in  Mrs.  Glover's 
own  handwriting,  is  compared  with  Mrs.  Eddy's 
Christian  Science  as  contained  in  her  "Science  and 
Health"  in  the  following  parallel  passages  from  the 
two.  A  glance  will  show  Dr.  Quimby's  system  of 
mental  healing,  as  taught  by  Mrs.  Glover,  later  Mrs. 
Eddy,  in  1870,  to  be  no  other  than  the  "Science  of 
Metaphysical  Healing"  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  formerly 
Mrs.  Glover,  now  savs  was  revealed  to  her  in  1866: 


From  Quimby's  "Sci- 
ence OF  Man,"  as  Ex- 
pounded BY  Mrs.  Eddy 
AT  Stoughton,  1868-69- 
70. 

"If  I  understand  how 
disease  originates  in  the 
mind  and  fully  believe  it, 
why  cannot  I  cure  mv- 
self?" 


From  Mrs.  Eddy's  "Sci- 
ence AND  Health," 
the  Text-Book  of  the 
"Christian  Science" 
She  now  Claims  to  have 
Discovered  in  1866. 

"Disease  being  a  be- 
lief, a  latent  deltision  of 
mortal  mind,  the  sensa- 
tion would  not  appear  if 
this  error  was  met  and  de- 


A    SHAM        RELIGION 


93 


' '  Disease  being  made 
by  our  belief  or  by  our 
parents'  belief  or  by  pub- 
lic opinion,  there  is  no 
one  formula  of  argument 
to  be  adopted ;  but  every 
one  must  fit  in  their  par- 
ticular case.  Therefore  it 
requires  great  shrewdness 
or  wisdom  to  get  the  bet- 
ter of  the  error."    .... 


strayed  by  Truth." — Page 
61,  edition  of  1898. 


''Science  not  only  re- 
veals the  origin  of  all 
disease  as  wholly  mental, 
but  it  also  declares  that 
all  disease  is  cured  by 
mind."  —  Page  62,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 


"I  know  of  no  better 
counsel  than  Jesus  gave 
to  His  disciples  when  He 
sent  them  forth  to  cast 
out  devils  and  heal  the 
sick,  and  thus  in  practice 
to  preach  the  Truth,  '  Be 
ye  wise  as  serpents  and 
harmless  as  doves.'  Never 
get  into  a  passion,  but  in 
patience  possess  ye  your 
soul,  and  at  length  you 
weary  out  the  discord 
and  produce  harmony  by 
your  Truth  destroying 
error.  Then  it  is  you  get 
the  case.  Now  if  you 
are  not  afraid  to  face  the 
error  and  argue  it  down, 
then  3^ou  can  heal  the 
sick." 


"When  we  come  to 
have  more  faith  in  the 
Truth  of  Being  than  we 
have  in  error,  more  faith 
in  spirit  than  in  matter, 
then  no  material  condi- 
tions can  prevent  us  from 
healing  the  sick  and  de- 
stroying error  through 
Truth.''  —  Page  367,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 

"We  classify  disease 
as  error,  which  nothing 
but  Truth  or  Mind  can 
heal."  —  Page  427,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 

"Discord  is  the  noth- 
ingness of  error.  Har- 
mony is  the  something- 
ness"  of  Truth."  —  Page 
172,  edition  of  1898. 


94 


THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 


"The  patient's  disease 
is  in  his  behef." 

"Error    is     sickness. 
Truth  is  health." 


"Sickness  is  part  of 
the  error  which  Truth 
casts  out.''  —  Page  478, 
edition  of  1898. 


"In  this  science  the 
names  are  given;  thus 
God  is  Wisdom.  This 
Wisdom,  not  an  Individ- 
uahty  but  a  principle, 
embrsices  every  idea  form, 
of  which  the  idea,  man, 
is  the  highest,  —  hence 
the  image  of  God,  or  the 
Principle." 


"God  is  the  principle 
of  man ;  and  the  principle 
of  man  remaining  perfect, 
its  idea  or  reflection  — ■ 
man  —  remains  perfect." 
—  Page  466,  edition  of 
1898. 

"Man  was  and  is  God's 
idea."  —  Page  231,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 

"Man  is  the  idea  of 
divine  principle."  —  Page 
471,  edition  of  1898. 

"What  is  God?  Je- 
hovah is  not  a  person. 
God  is  principle." — Page 
169.  edition  of  1881. 


"Understanding       is 
God." 


"All  sciences  are  part 
of  God." 


"Understanding  is  a 
quahty  of  God."  —  Page 
449,  edition  of  1898. 

"All  science  is  of 
God."  — Page  513,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 


"Truth  is  God." 
"There    is    no    other 
Truth  but  God." 

"God  is  Wisdom." 
"God  is  Principle." 


"Truth  is  God."  — 
Page  183,  edition  of  1898. 

"Truth,  God,  is  not 
the  Father  of  error."  — 
Page  469,  edition  of  1898. 


A    SHAM       RELIGION 


95 


"Wisdom,   Love   and 
Truth  are  the  Principle." 


"Error  is  matter." 
"  Matter  has  no  inteUi- 

gence." 

"To  give  intelHgence 

to    matter    is    an    error 

which  is  sickness." 

"Matter  has  no  in- 
telligence of  its  own,  and 
to  beUeve  intelHgence  is 
in  matter  is  the  error 
which  produces  pain  and 
inharmony  of  all  sorts ;  to 
hold  ourselves  we  are  a 
principle  outside  of  mat- 
ter, we  would  not  be  in- 
fluenced by  the  opinions 
of  man,  but  held  to  the 
workings  only  of  a  prin- 
ciple, Truth,  in  which 
there  are  no  inharmonies 
of  sickness,  pain,  or  sin." 

"For  matter  is  an  er- 
ror, there  being  no  sub- 


"How  can  I  most 
rapidly  advance  in  the 
understanding  of  Chris- 
tian Science  ?  Study 
thoroughly  the  letter  and 
imbibe  the  spirit.  Ad- 
here to  its  divine  Prin- 
ciple, and  follow  its  be- 
hests, abiding  steadily  in 
Wisdom,  Love,  and 
Truth."  —  Page  491,  edi- 
tion of  1898. 

"Matter  is  mortal  er- 
ror," —  Page  169,  edition 
of  1881. 

"The  fundamental  er- 
ror of  mortal  man  is  the 
belief  that  matter  is  in- 
telligent." —  Page  122, 
edition  of  1881. 

"Laws  of  matter  are 
nothing  more  or  less  than 
a  belief  of  intelligence 
and  life  in  matter,  w^hich 
is  the  procuring  cause  of 
all  disease;  whereas  God, 
Truth,  is  its  positive 
cure."  —  Page  127,  edi- 
tion of  1881. 

"There  is  no  life, 
truth,  intelligence,  or  sub- 
stance in  matter." — Page 
464,  edition  of  1898. 

[It  will  be  seen  that 
every  idea  contained  in 


m 


THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 


stance,  which  is  Truth  m 
a  thing  which  changes 
and  is  only  that  which 
behef  makes  it." 

"Christ  was  the  Wis- 
dom that  knew  Truth 
dwelt  not  in  opinion  and 
that  matter  was  but  opin- 
ion that  could  be  formed 
into  any  shape  which  the 
belief  gave  to  it,  and  that 
the  life  which  moved  it 
came  not  from  it,  but 
was  outside  of  it." 


this  last  passage,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  famous  ''scien- 
tific statement  of  being," 
the  mental  repetition  of 
which  constitutes  Chris- 
tian Science  ''  t  r  e  a  t  - 
ment,"  is  taken  from  Dr. 
Quimby's  writings.] 


This  paralleling  of  Eddyism,  or  Christian  Science, 
with  Quimbyism  shows  that,  as  late  as  1870,  Mrs. 
Eddy  professed  to  have  learned  from  Quimby,  that 
error  is  sickness;  that  belief  is  sickness;  that  discord 
is  sickness;  that  there  is  no  life,  truth,  inteUigence. 
or  substance  in  matter ;  that  matter  is  error ;  that  the 
belief  of  intelligence  in  matter  is  the  cause  of  all 
disease;  that  Truth  is  God;  that  there  is  no  other 
truth  but  God;  that  God  is  Principle;  that  Wisdom, 
Love  and  Truth  are  Principle;  that  Truth  is  health 
and  cures  sickness;  that  harmony,  by  destroying 
disharmony,  cures  disease;  and,  finally,  that  all  dis- 
ease originates  in  mind  and  is  cured  by  mind  alone. 

And  this  is  the  sum  total,  the  beginning  and  the 
end,  of  that  strange  thing  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  Christian 
Science,  as  it  is  contained  and  set  forth  in  her  book, 
"Science  and  Health." 


A    SHAM    "religion"  97 

If  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  could  be 
expected  to  give  a  candid  answer  to  a  plain  question, 
might  not  some  such  respectful  inquiry  as  the  follow- 
ing at  this  point  be  pertinently  propounded:  If  Mrs. 
Patterson,  or  Mrs.  Glover,  afterwards  Mrs.  Eddy,  in 
1868,  1869  and  1870  openly  avowed  that  the  "scien- 
tific mind  healing"  she  then  taught  was  the  discovery 
of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  when  and  how  did  Mrs.  Eddy, 
formerly  Mrs.  Patterson  and  Mrs.  Glover,  discover  that 
she  had  discovered  it  herself  in  1866? 

But  the  question  will  not  be  answered  for  the 
reason  that  the  sworn  evidence  of  the  Wentworths 
and  Mrs.  Clapp,  together  with  the  paralleling  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Christian  Science  of  today  with  her  version 
of  Quimbyism  of  1870  shows,  as  clearly  as  words  can 
show  anything,  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  to  having 
received,  in  1866,  a  final  revelation '  from  God,  who 
for  many  years  had  been  fitting  her  to  receive  it, 
is  an  invention,  a  fiction,  a  fraud,  a  lie  that  for 
wickedness  and  cruelty  surpasses  any  lie  ever  in- 
vented by  hypocrisy  and  greed. 

The  only  person  living  who  can  meet  this  testi- 
mony and  answer  it  is  Mrs,  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 
Her  newspaper  puppets  of  the  "Publication  Com- 
mittee" knew  nothing  about  her  at  the  time  to  which 
it  relates.  They  have  no  knowledge  whatever  of  the 
facts  stated.  They  will  affirm  or  deny  anything  they 
are  told  to  affirm  or  deny;  but  their  principal  has 
maintained  and  will  maintain  discreet  silence.  She 
will  not  venture  to  deny  that  she  wrote  the  letter  to 
the  Portland  Courier,  that  she  wrote  the  verses  upon 


98  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

Dr.  Quimby  glorifying  him  as  a  second  Jesus,  that  she 
Hved  at  the  Wentworths'  house  during  the  years 
1868,  1869  and  1870,  and  that  she  then  taught  from 
a  copy  of  Quimby 's  writings  a  mental  healing  system 
she  then  said  she  had  learned  from  him. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  bold,  but  not  so  bold  as  to  give  the 
lie  direct  to  the  sworn  statements  of  Horace  T. 
Wentworth,  Catherine  Isabel  Clapp,  Lucy  Holmes 
and  Charles  O.  Wentworth,  all  highly  respected  resi- 
dents of  the  town  of  Stoughton,  Mrs.  Eddy  will 
dare  much;  but  she  will  hardly  dare  to  dispute  the 
evidence  furnished  by  her  own  hand. 

And  silence  is  confession,  and  confession  is 
acknowledgment  of  theft  and  falsehood  and  fraud, 
and  hypocrisy  be3^ond  comparison. 

Not  upon  such  stones  did  the  Jesus  Christ,  Whom 
Mrs.  Eddy  professes  to  emulate,  construct  the  religion 
that  bears  His  name;  and  there  can  be  no  greater 
irreverence  than  Mrs.  Eddy's  calling  her  pretended 
religion  "Christian,"  and  no  greater  absurdity  than 
her  calling  it  "Science." 

My  purpose  in  showing  Dr.  Quimby 's  authorship 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Christian  Science  is  to  establish  the 
falsity  of  her  claim  that  God  revealed  it  to  her.  The 
thing  itself,  as  Dr.  Quimby 's,  is  of  no  greater  weight 
and  of  no  more  consequence  than  as  Mrs.  Eddy's. 
Dr.  Quimby  and  Mrs.  Eddy  were  evidently  upon  the 
same  intellectual  plane,  both  uneducated  and  crude. 
He  was  a  good  and  sincere  and  unselfish  and  trustful 
man,  and  she  appropriated  his  ideas.  They  knew 
nothing   of   philosophy   nor  of   science,  and  whether 


A    SHAM    "religion"  99 

Christian  Science  be  his  or  hers  is  of  sHght  importance, 
except  as  the  estabHshment  of  his  authorship  proves 
her  to  be  the  author  of  a  fraud  whose  large  propor- 
tions and  successful  workings  challenge  the  kind  of 
admiration  one  feels  for  the  criminal  whose  great 
crime  proves  him  to  be  a  man  of  immense  mental 
fertility  and  of  profound  understanding  of  human 
weakness. 

When  it  is  said  that  Mrs.  Eddy  stole  her  system 
from  Dr.  Quimby  and  then  falsely  pretended  that 
she  received  it  by  revelation  from  God,  her  only 
response  has  been  that  the  matter  has  been  adjudi- 
cated by  the  courts,  and  it  has  been  definitely  settled 
that  the  charge  is  false.  The  adjudication  in  the 
courts  had  no  bearing  whatever  upon  this  charge. 
One  Edward  J.  Ahrens,  a  German  adventurer,  at  one 
time  an  intimate  of  Mrs.  Eddy's,  published  copious 
extracts  from  her  book,  and,  having  been  sued  by  her 
for  infringement  of  copyright  of  her  revelation  and 
having  failed  to  make  any  defense,  the  court  adjudged 
his  publications  infringements  of  her  copyright. 

I  am  not  aware  that  anyone  has  pretended  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  write  "Science  and  Health"  in 
its  crudest,  original  form,  and  is  not  entitled  to  the 
protection  of  copyright  upon  the  book,  but  the  fact 
that  the  court  has  decided  that  she  is  entitled  to  the 
protection  of  copyright,  is  no  answer  to  the  charge 
that  certain  claims  and  pretensions  made  in  the 
book  are  false.  The  copyright,  in  her  case,  simply 
means  that  no  one  else  has  a  right  to  publish  her 
lies  without  her  consent.     To  the  simple  minded,  it 


100  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

may  seem  a  little  peculiar  that  Mrs.  Eddy  should 
insist  upon  exclusive  rights  to  publish  and  sell,  bv 
procuring  copyright,  a  book  of  which  she  says,  not 
she,  but  God,  was  author  and  which  she  calls  "God's 
Book,"  at  a  profit,  not  to  God,  but  to  her,  of  500 
per  cent;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  her  three  hundred 
dollar  fee  for  twelve  or  seven  lessons,  to  which  I 
shall  presently  call  attention,  the  worldly  wisdom 
of  her  course  has  appeared  in  multitudinous  ways, 
likewise  multitudinous  dollars! 

It  would  seem  like  a  waste  of  time  to  contend 
that  God  is  not  the  author  of  "Science  and  Health;" 
that  God,  the  AU-w^ise,  the  All-loving,  the  All-power- 
ful, did  not  wait  nineteen  hundred  years  after  the 
death  of  Christ  to  complete  the  revelation  of  Himself 
made  through  Jesus;  that  of  all  the  personalities  who 
have  lived  upon  this  earth  since  the  time  of  Jesus, 
the  one  selected  by  God  to  lead  the  world  unto  Him 
should  be  this  uncultivated  and  vulgar  woman,  whose 
variegated  career  has  been  somewhat  presented,  and 
whose  whole  energies  have  been  devoted  to  utilizing 
her  pretended  revelation  for  pecuniary  profit.  I  say, 
it  would  seem  to  be  an  utter  waste  of  time,  were  it 
not  for  the  pathetic  fact  that  thousands  —  sixty  or 
seventy  thousands  —  perhaps  more  —  of  the  people 
of  this  country  believe  that  Almighty  God  so  acted. 

It  now  being  perfectly  clear  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did 
not,  as  she  says,  receive  Christian  Science  by  revela- 
tion from  God,  she  clearly  has  no  warrant  for  pre- 
tending it  to  be  a  religion.  As  a  religion,  Christian 
Science  is  the  shallowest  fraud  and  imposture.     It 


A    SHAM    "religion"  101 

has  no  conceivable  right  to  the  name  "Christian," 
and  every  one  of  the  beautiful  churches  erected  in 
its  honor  is  a  monument  simply  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
deception  and  hypocrisy  and  lies  and  to  the  limitless 
gullibility  of  the  human  race,  and  every  one  of  the 
many  thousands  of  sincere  and  simple-minded  people 
who  at  its  services  Hft  up  their  hearts  in  worship  to 
God  are  the  victims  of  an  old  woman's  insincere, 
mercenary  appeal  to  their  religious  feelings. 

No  sane  person  can  have  followed  this  narrative 
thus  far  and  not  agree  with  me  that,  as  a  religion, 
there  is  no  warrant  for  Christian  Science,  and  those 
who  will  continue  to  the  end  will  further  agree  with 
me  that,  as  a  healing  system,  it  is  just  as  fraudulent; 
that  it  kills  the  sweetest  and  tenderest  emotions  in 
the  human  heart  by  rooting  out  sympathy,  charity 
and  compassion;  that  there  is  no  other  hatred  and 
vindictiveness  equal  to  the  hatred  and  vindictiveness 
of  its  founder  and  her  leading  votaries;  that  there  is 
no  other  cruelty,  no  other  greed,  that  can  compare 
with  theirs;  that  the  so-called  malicious  animal 
magnetism,  the  witchcraft  feature,  is  as  wicked  an 
invention  as  the  human  mind  ever  conceived,  and  that 
its  attempted  use  for  veritable  assassination  is  as 
devilish  as  anything  that  could  possibly  emanate 
from  the  depths  of  hell;  and,  finally,  that  the  inspired 
teaching  of  the  three-or-four-times-married  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy,  regarding  the  most  sacred  and  funda- 
mental institution  established  among  men,  I  refer  to 
the  institution  of  marriage,  is  so  low  and  so  vile  that 
self-respecting  people,  when  they  come  to  understand 


102  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

it,  must  repudiate  it  from  overwhelming  shame.  In- 
sanity is  not  responsible  for  indecency;  but  those 
Christian  Scientists  who  have  not  parted  with  their 
sanity,  and  are  not  in  Christian  Science  for  revenue 
only,  will  turn  with  horror  from  the  woman  and  her 
work,  when  they  know  precisely  what  they  are. 

Surely  one  may  be  pardoned  some  warmth  of 
indignation  at  the  assumptions  of  this  vulgar  adven- 
turess, this  mercenary  charlatan!  It  is  difficult  to 
think  of  them  without  impatience;  it  is  impossible 
to  speak  of  them  without  anger. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  Bogus  Healing  System 

OF  course  the  successor  to  and  equal  of  Jesus 
must  perform  miracles,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  has  a 
stock  of  miracles  on  hand  suited  to  the  large,  the  very- 
large,  the  extraordinarily  large,  swallowing  capacity 
of  those  who  ache  for  somethng  real  hard  to  take  in 
and  digest.  Nothing  could  be  too  hard  for  her 
worshipers,  and  she  gives  free  rein  to  her  inventive 
faculty  in  suiting  the  miracle  to  the  need. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  ever  been  noted  for  her  modesty, 
her  retiring  disposition  and  proneness  to  under- 
estimate herself  and  her  powers.  "Has  Mrs.  Eddy 
lost  her  power  to  heal?"  she  asks,  and  with  charac- 
teristic bashfulness  and  self-depreciation  she  replies, 
"Has  the  sun  forgotten  to  shine  and  the  planets  to 
revolve  around  it?"  Sooner  shall  the  light  of  the 
sun  pale,  sooner  the  planets  fly  from  their  orbits, 
than  Mrs.  Eddy  part  with  her  power  to  heal ! 

So  great  was  the  healing  influence  that  radiated 
from  her  personality  that  she  sometimes  healed  un- 
consciously. 

"It  was  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  in  my  own 
church,"  she  says,  "for  the  sick  to  be  healed  by  my 
sermons.  Many  pale  cripples  went  into  the  church 
leaning  on  crutches,  who  went  out  carrying  them  on 
their  shoulders." 

103 


104  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

What  an  inestimable  blessing  it  would  be,  if  a 
person  possessing  such  power  should  make  a  visit 
to  the  hospital  in  Boston  for  crippled  children,  and 
preach  a  little  sermon  there  to  the  young  unfortu- 
nates! Mrs.  Eddy  has  but  to  step  into  her  automo- 
bile and  in  twenty  minutes  she  may  be  at  this  hospital, 
and  by  putting  forth  the  power  she  says  she  has  and 
healing  the  pale  little  cripples,  as  she  says  she  has 
healed  others,  bring  the  whole  world  to  her  feet. 

In  a  letter  to  a  friend  written  in  March,  1896,  she 
says  over  her  autograph,  but  speaking  of  herself,  as 
she  often  does,  in  the  third  person: 

"While  Mrs.  Eddy  was  in  a  suburban  town  of 
Boston  she  brought  out  one  apple  blossom  on  an 
apple  tree  in  January,  when  the  ground  was  covered 
with  snow;  and  in  Lynn  demonstrated  in  the  floral 
line  some  such  small  things." 

That  isn't  so  remarkable  as  if  an  orange  blossom 
had  been  brought  out  on  the  apple  tree  (as  it  would 
doubtless  have  been  if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  thought  of  it) , 
but  it  was  quite  an  accomplishment,  nevertheless.  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "treatment,"  probably  of  the  "absent  "variety, 
sent  a  summer's  warmth  through  the  earth's  frozen 
surface  and  tingling  with  animation  the  sap  in  the  roots 
sent  it  by  leaps  and  bounds  through  the  trunk  into  the 
ice-laden  branches,  and,  presto!  a  tender,  pink- white 
blossom,  pushing  its  way  through  the  ice,  appeared. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  too  reticent  and  too  diffident.  Why 
does  she  not  tell  us  of  the  other  equally  well  authenti- 
cated occasion  upon  which  she  brought  out  a  few 
stars  in  the  sky  when  the  sun  was  at  high  noon,  and 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  105 

"demonstrated"  in  the  astronomical  line  some  such 
large  things. 

I  have  called  certain  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  representa- 
tions lies,  and  the  word  "He"  is  a  very  disagreeable 
word.  It  is  bad  enough  to  have  to  use  it  in  character- 
ization of  the  utterances  of  a  man;  but  it  is  still 
worse  to  apply  it  in  all  its  brutaHty  to  a  woman. 
I  have  endeavored  to  find  another  word,  meaning 
precisely  the  same  thing,  that  isn't  so  intrinsically 
offensive;  but  there  is  no  other  word  that  suits  my 
purpose  and  the  occasion  as  does  this  word  "lie,"  and 
so  I  am  compelled  to  adhere  to  it,  even  at  the  risk 
of  being  charged  with  lack  of  gallantry  in  my  atti- 
tude toward  a  woman.  Gallantry  really  has  nothing 
to  do  with  my  undertaking.  Truth  and  lies  are 
sexless,  and  the  only  question  is,  has  Mrs.  Eddy 
told  the  truth? 

But  further  word  about  lies.  There  are  some 
lies  that  are  not  so  bad  as  other  lies,  and  there  have 
been  lies  that  have  called  forth  commendation.  I 
recall  in  that  wonderful  story,  Victor  Hugo's  "Les 
Miserables,"  the  incident  of  the  lie  told  by  the  Sister 
Superior  of  the  convent  in  order  to  save  from  the 
brutal  grasp  of  the  law  incarnate,  as  represented  by 
Javert,  the  sublime  personality  of  the  transformed 
ex-convict,  and  Hugo's  beautiful  eulogy  of  that  lie 
and  that  woman: 

"Oh,  holy  woman,  it  is  many  years  since  you  were 
upon  this  earth ;  you  have  rejoined"  in  the  light  you  sis- 
ter, the  virgins,  and  your  brothers,  the  angeis;  may 
that  falsehood  be  placed  to  your  credit  in  Paradise!" 


106  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

There  are  lies  arising  merely  out  of  a  tactful  wish 
to  spare  people's  feelings,  and  there  are  the  little  white 
lies  of  social  life  that  nobody  especially  reprobates; 
but  there  are  lies  that  are  intrinsically  of  an  infamous 
character,  and  I  can  conceive  of  no  falsehood  more 
infamous  than  that  which,  proceeding  from  a  wholly 
mercenary  motive,  is  deliberately  planned  and 
put  forth  in  order  to  alienate  people  from  a  religion 
in  which  is  the  hope  of  salvation  and  immortality, 
and  from  a  scientific  medical  system  in  which  is  the 
hope  of  bodily  health  and  life.  These  are  the  precise 
kind  of  lies  of  which  this  woman  is  most  prolific,  and 
which  she  distributes  most  lavishly. 

The  passage  I  am  now  to  quote  is  taken  from  a 
communication  signed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  and  published 
by  her  in  the  New  York  Sun  for  December  16,  1898, 
and  it  contains  the  boldest  and  wickedest  of  these 
most  bold  and  most  wicked  lies. 

In  this  letter  Mrs.  Eddy  said: 

"I  challenge  the  world  to  disprove  what  I  hereby 
declare.  After  my  discovery  of  Christian  Science,  I 
healed  consumption  in  its  last  stages,  that  the 
M.D.'s,  by  verdict  of  the  stethoscope  and  the  schools, 
declared  incurable,  the  lungs  being  mostly  consumed. 
I  healed  malignant  tubercular  diphtheria  and  carious 
bones  that  could  be  dented  by  the  finger,  saving  them 
when  the  surgeon's  intruments  were  lying  on  the 
table  ready  for  their  amputation.  I  have  healed  at 
one  visit  a  cancer  that  had  so  eaten  the  flesh  of  the 
neck  as  to  expose  the  jugular  vein  so  that  it  stood 
out  like  a  cord." 

She  manufactured  new  lungs,  offhand.     She  healed 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  107 

carious  bones,  instantaneously.  She  put  forth  the 
divine  power  God  had  conferred  upon  her,  and  at 
one'  visit  healed  that  most  frightful  of  all  diseases, 
a  malignant  cancer. 

This  statement  is  either  true  or  false.  If  it  is 
true,  the  whole  world  should  know  it,  for  its  truth 
would  prove  Mrs.  Eddy  to  have  the  power  to  triumph 
over  death,  and  when  the  king,  or  the  queen,  of  death 
shall  come  to  earth,  all  knees  will  touch  the  ground. 
No  one  can  love  another  very  much  and  not  be  willing 
to  go  upon  his  knees  before  the  man  or  the  woman 
who  can  protect  that  loved  one  forever  from  the  hand 
of  death;  and  I  should  want  to  be  the  very  first  to 
prostrate  myself  in  all  humility  and  gratitude  before 
the  conqueror  of  death.  And  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  is  false,  absolutely  false,  a 
fiction  made  out  of  whole  cloth,  then  it  is  important 
that  such  falsity  should  be  clearly  shown,  and  shown 
throughout  the  world  that  all  mankind  may  know 
the  wickedness  of  her  falsification.  I  afiirm,  and  shall 
show,  it  to  be  false  in  every  particular. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  gives  no  names,  dates, 
localities,  nor  any  substantial  thing  to  enable  any  one 
to  investigate  any  of  these  professed  miracles,  and 
every  effort  to  induce  her  to  particularize  ended,  as 
always,  in  failure.  There  would  have  been  as  much, 
and  as  little,  sense  in  a  challenge  to  the  world  to 
disprove  the  green-cheese  hypothesis  of  the  structural 
composition  of  the  moon. 

In  the  issue  of  the  Sun  of  January  1,  1899,  Dr. 
Charles  A.  L.  Reed,  a  prominent  physician  of  Cin- 


108  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

cinnati,  published  a  challenge  to  Mrs.  Eddy  to  prove 
the  truth  of  her  miraculous  cures.  He  offered  to 
furnish  her  cases  identical  with  those  she  said' she 
had  healed,  and  he  said  that,  if  she  would  heal  any 
one  of  them,  he  would  proclaim  her  omnipotence 
from  the  housetops;  and  if  she  would  cure  all  or 
half  of  them,  he  would  cheerfully  crawl  upon 
his  knees  that  he  might  but  touch  the  hem  of  her 
garment. 

But  dumbness  possessed  Mrs.  Eddy  from  that 
time  forth.  Probably  she  didn't  want  to  be  glorified 
from  the  housetops;  she  didn't  wish  to  have  any  mere 
medical  man  crawling  at  her  feet. 

As  Mrs.  Eddy  furnishes  no  specifications,  it  is 
impossible,  of  course,  to  meet  her  allegations  in  the 
ordinary  way;  but  I  purpose,  nevertheless,  to  satisfy 
every  intelligent  mind  that  there  is  not  an  atom  of 
truth  in  her  professed  miracles. 

If  you  have  the  power  over  life  and  death  here 
claimed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  when  do  you  employ  it? 
You  employ  it,  do  you  not,  when  some  one  you 
greatly  love  is  suffering,  when  some  one  dear  to  you 
is  approaching  the  grave?  If  you  have  the  power 
to  save  human  life,  you  save  the  life,  first  of  all,  of 
those  whom  you  most  love;  and  if  you  know  those 
you  dearly  love  to  be  suffering  torture  from  frightful 
disease  and  that,  if  the  progress  of  the  disease  is  not 
stopped,  the  hand  of  death  will  inevitably  snatch 
them,  if  you  know  these  things  and  put  forth  no 
particle  of  power,  make  no  effort  to  allay  the  suffer- 
ing or  stay  the  progress  of  the  disease,  then  it  becomes 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  109 

clear  that  you  have  no  such  power,  or  that  you  are 
a  monster  of  inhumanity,  does  it  not? 

This  is  the  case  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  If  she  has  had 
the  power  she  claims,  she  has  the  most  unfeeling  heart 
that  ever  beat  in  a  human  breast;  for  she  has  never 
put  forth  the  power  to  save  those  she  most  loved 
as  they  stood  on  the  very  edge  of  the  grave. 

In  the  summer  of  1902,  there  died  in  the  city  of 
Boston,  after  seven  years  of  illness,  Mrs.  Mary  Ann 
Baker,  the  widow  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  deceased  brother, 
Samuel  Baker.  The  relations  between  the  sisters- 
in-law  had,  for  years,  been  most  cordial,  and  I  have 
seen  and  read  Mrs.  Eddy's  autograph  letters  in  which 
she  professed,  only  a  few  days  before  her  sister's 
death,  the  greatest  affection  for  her. 

Mrs.  Baker's  disease,  of  which  Mrs.  Eddy  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  was  fully  informed,  was 
cancer  of  the  breast,  and  her  suffering  during  the 
seven  years  of  illness  from  that  awful  disease  may 
be  better  imagined  than  described. 

At  Mrs.  Eddy's  request,  Mrs.  Baker  had  sub- 
mitted to  Christian  Science  "treatment,"  the  healer 
selected  by  Mrs.  Eddy  being  Mrs.  Janette  E.  Weller, 
a  close  friend  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  confidential 
representative  in  Boston;  but  Mrs.  Baker  derived  no 
benefit  from  it  whatever,  and  died  in  the  care  of 
Dr.  H.  S.  Bearing  of  Boston. 

From  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  I  have 
asked  Christian  Scientists  this  question: 

If  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  hire,  had  healed,  at  one  sitting, 
a  cancer  that  had  so  eaten  into  the  neck  of  a  stranger 


110  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

that  the  jugular  vein  stood  out  Hke  a  cord,  why, 
I  ask,  why  in  the  name  of  God,  did  she  not,  for  her 
love's  sake,  stay  the  progress  of  the  loathsome  disease 
that  for  seven  years  ate  into  the  breast  of  the  sister 
she  loved?  Until  Mrs.  Eddy  or  one  of  her  professed 
disciples  has  answered  that  question,  let  her  not  look 
for  followers  amongst  people  who  know  of  this  in- 
cident and  have  hearts;  for  she  hadn't  the  power  or 
she  hadn't  the  wish  to  save  her  sister,  and  the  want 
of  power  would  prove  the  baseness  of  her  falsehoods, 
as  the  want  of  a  wish  would  prove  the  adamantine 
quality  of  her  heart. 

If  Mrs.  Eddy  possessed  this  miraculous  power, 
why  did  she  permit  her  third  husband  to  die  of 
heart  disease  by  her  side,  when  one  treatment  of 
hers  would  have  saved  him?  Why  did  she  not 
reach  out  her  all-powerful  hand  and  save  her  own 
granddaughter,  the  child  of  her  only  son,  when 
piteous  appeal  to  her  was  made  by  the  child's  father? 
Why,  instead  of  putting  forth  the  slightest  personal 
effort,  did  she  recommend  the  employment  of  a 
Boston  healer,  so  called,  a  retired  sea  captain,  one 
Joseph  Eastaman  by  name,  to  give  absent  treatment 
in  Boston  to  the  poor  girl  dying  in  South  Dakota? 
Imagine  a  retired  sea  captain  sitting  in  his  office  in 
Boston,  closing  his  eyes,  placing  his  aged  hand  upon 
his  vacant  forehead  and  trying  to  think  health  and 
life  into  Mrs.  Eddy's  granddaughter  nearly  two 
thousand  miles  away!  If  Mrs.  Eddy  could  have 
saved  her  own  flesh  and  blood  and  did  not,  what 
must  have  been  the  condition  of  that  thing  Mrs. 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  111 

Eddy  calls  her  heart?  Who  that  has  human  feeling 
in  his  heart  would  not  give  his  life  for  his  child  or 
his  grandchild?  and  this  woman,  posing  as  the  suc- 
cessor to  and  as  like  unto  Him  who  said,  "Suffer 
little  children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,"  and  claiming 
to  have  performed  miracles  equal  to  any  ascribed  to 
Him  in  the  Gospels,  did  absolutely  nothing  to  save 
the  life  of  her  granddaughter! 

If  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  the  miracle  worker  she 
claims  to  have  been,  why  did  she  turn  poor,  devoted 
Mrs.  Leonard,  herself  a  renowned  healer  of  the  cult, 
who  had  slaved  in  her  household  for  years,  and  had 
for  months  and  years  been  dying  of  diabetes  under 
her  very  eyes  —  why  did  Mrs.  Eddy  turn  Mrs.  Leon- 
ard out  of  the  house  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire, 
shortly  before  her  death  of  that  distressing  disease? 
Was  it  because  Mrs.  Eddy  didn't  wish  the  striking 
discredit  of  her  professed  powers  that  w^ould  follow 
Mrs.  Leonard's  death  upon  the  Eddy  premises? 
Having  the  power  to  save  her  life,  as  she  claims,  all 
Mrs.  Eddy  did  for  Mrs.  Leonard  was  to  ask  her, 
when  death  became  imminent,  to  be  so  good  as  to 
go  away  and  die  elsewhere. 

Mrs.  Eddy  estimates  values  in  terms  of  dollars 
and  cents,  and  yet,  possessing  the  mastery  over 
death,  she  put  forth  no  effort  to  save  the  life  of 
Joseph  Armstrong,  her  close  friend  of  many  years, 
a  director  in  her  church  from  its  foundation,  her 
personal  business  manager  who  had  made  a  fortune 
for  her,  and  yet  departed  this  life  of  pleurisy  with 


112  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

effusion  in  the  summer  or  fall  of  1907.  If  Mrs.  Eddy 
could  save  any  human  life,  she  would  have  saved  this 
one,  so  pecuniarily  precious  above  all  other  lives  to  her. 

If  she  had  such  marvelous  power,  why  did  she 
allow  her  personal  coachman,  the  man  who  had  sat 
on  the  seat  of  her  carriage  as  she  took  her  daily 
drive,  to  die  in  her  house  of  a  disease  of  which  he 
had  been  "completely  cured"  by  Christian  Science? 
Why  did  she  let  her  close,  personal  friend,  her  leading 
lecturer  and  proselyter,  Edward  E.  Kimball,  die  in 
the  prime  of  life  and  at  the  height  of  his  usefulness 
to  her  cause  ?  Why  has  she  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
prayers  that  have  been  addressed  to  her  by  broken- 
hearted parents  who  have  so  often  journeyed  to  her 
home  to  beg  her  to  exert  her  God-like  power  to  save 
from  the  grave  their  dying  child?  Why  has  she  for 
thirty  years  and  more  refused  to  even  try  to  heal 
any  one,  to  attempt  to  allay  any  pain  however 
fearful,  or  save  any  human  life  however  beautiful 
and  however  precious? 

If  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  has  the  power  she  boldly 
claims  to  have,  and  if  she  has  wrought  the  miracles 
she  says  she  has  wrought,  she  has  that  power,  then, 
I  say,  she  has  the  heart  of  a  very  fiend;  for  not  once 
in  thirty  years  has  she  consented  to  try,  out  of  ordi- 
nary humanity,  to  prevent  suffering  or  to  save  life. 

The  truth  is,  Mrs.  Eddy's  miraculous  cures  are 
all  frauds,  every  one  of  them,  and  the  failure  of  at- 
tempted heahngs  would  prove  them  to  be  frauds, 
and  she  does  not  wish  to  so  discredit  herself.  She 
never   healed  any  one  of   any  serious   disease.     She 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  113 

never  in  her  life  had  any  curative  power  whatever, 
and  she  has  been  wise  indeed  not  to  advertise  the 
fact  by  attempting  to  cnre.  Her  man,  Alfred  Farlow, 
the  official,  highly  paid  and  carefully  coached  spokes- 
man of  her  cult,  and  its  leading  press  agent,  admitted, 
in  response  to  my  questioning  and  when  testifying 
recently  under  oath  and  subject  to  cross  examination, 
that  he  did  not  know  of  any  cure  ever  having  been 
made  by  Mrs.  Eddy  of  any  organic  disease  in  her  life, 
but  stiff  leg;  and  he  said  that,  in  his  understanding 
as  a  high  practitioner  of  the  Christian  Science  art  of 
healing,    a   stiff  leg  is  an  organic  disease. 

When  I  entered  upon  my  investigation  of  the 
matter,  I  believed  in  the  reality  of  some  of  the  pro- 
fessed cures  of  Christian  Science,  even  of  organic 
disease,  but  closer  acquaintance  with  the  subject  has 
satisfied  me  that  they  are,  without  exception,  false 
pretensions  or  honest  delusions.  I  have  known  of 
the  most  honest,  but  erroneous,  belief  in  cure  by 
Christian  Science,  I  have  known  people  so  resolutely 
to  deny  to  themselves  the  reality  of  disease,  that 
they  have  come  to  believe  in  its  unreality;  and 
one  case  has  come  to  my  notice  of  a  poor  woman's  in- 
sistence with  her  dying  breath  that  she  had  been  healed 
of  an  incurable  disease  and  was  then  perfectly  well, 
while  her  death  within  a  few  hours  was  the  sad 
witness   to   the   delusive   character  of  her  **cure." 

Perhaps  the  most  impressive  case  of  this  delusive 
cure  of  incurable  disease  is  that  of  the  Earl  of  Dun- 
more.  He  was  Christian  Science's  show  convert. 
His   personality  was  always  in   the   foreground,   he 


114  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

always  sat  in  the  front  row  upon  the  platform  and 
his  name  was  always  in  the  papers. 

In  March,  1907,  he  published  in  the  Cosmopolitan 
Magazine  an  account  of  his  conversion  to  Christian 
Science,  which  was  due,  he  said,  to  his  having  been 
healed  by  it  of  a  disease  an  eminent  London  surgeon 
had  pronounced  incurable.  The  Earl  of  Dunmore, 
when  he  published  that  article,  doubtless  believed 
it  was  true.  He  was  perfectly  sincere,  but  his  death, 
within  a  few  weeks  after  the  publication  of  his  con- 
version through  cure,  his  death  of  the  very  disease 
pronounced  incurable  by  the  Londgn  doctor,  was 
pathetic  and  convincing  testimony  to  his  mistaken 
opinion  that  he  had  been  cured  and  to  the  accuracy 
of  the  medical  diagnosis  that  his  disease  was  incurable. 

Again  and  again  the  most  persistent  effort  has 
been  made  to  induce  Christian  Science  healers  to 
give  some  reasonable  proof  of  their  powers;  but  they 
as  persistently  refuse  to  submit  any  alleged  cures  to 
anything  like  scientific  scrutiny.  There  has  never 
been  a  scientifically  established  Christian  Science 
cure.  The  "healers"  confess  that  they  are,  nay  even 
boast  that  they  are,  incompetent  to  diagnose  disease. 
If  they  can't  determine  the  presence  of  disease,  how 
then  can  they  determine  its  cure?  Mrs.  Eddy  herself 
goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  ignorance  of  all  departments 
of  the  science  of  medicine  is  an  aid  in  the  cure  of 
disease,  according  to  her  system.  What  value  then 
is  to  be  attached  to  anything  any  of  them  say  about 
disease,  if  they  are  completely  ignorant  concerning 
it?     And   it   being   a   fundamental    article    of   their 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  115 

faith  to  deny  the  reality  of  disease,  how  can  they 
admit  its  reality,  however  manifest  in  their  patients, 
without  stultifying  themselves?  Is  it  not  superla- 
tively absurd  to  be  in  the  slightest  degree  influenced 
by  anything  any  of  these  monomaniacs,  or  fakers,  can 
possibly  say  upon  a  subject  of  which  they  openly 
profess  to  know,  and  boast  that  they  know,  abso- 
lutely nothing? 

Besides,  and  let  me  emphasize  this  statement, 
there  is  not  a  Christian  Science  healer,  in  good  and 
regular  standing  anywhere  in  the  world,  who  tells 
the  truth,  or  tries  to  tell  the  truth,  or  could  tell  the 
truth  if  he  tried.  They  know  that  suffering  is  real, 
they  know  disease  is  real,  they  know  that  death  is 
the  most  positive  of  all  realities,  and  yet  they  per- 
petually affirm  the  unreality  of  all  these  things. 
Every  former  healer,  who  has  reformed,  or  recovered 
his  sanity  and  given  up  pretending  to  heal  by  denying 
the  reality  of  a  condition  he  is  attempting  to  change, 
will  tell  you  he  lied  perpetually  when  practising  so- 
called  Christian  Science;  for  to  admit  the  reality  of 
disease  or  suffering  or  death,  however  confident  of 
its  existence,  is  to  deny  the  faith  and  pronounce  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  be  a  fraud. 

Let  me  here,  parenthetically,  call  attention  to 
another  phase  of  this  thing.  Not  only  are  these 
unrealities  proclaimed,  but  the  reality  of  sin  is  in 
like  manner  denied.  If  sin  is  unreal,  to  commit  sin 
is  nothing,  and  no  iniquity  is  so  great  as  to  be  morally 
reprehensible.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  morality  or 
immorality,  if  sin  is  unreal;  and  any  one  who  pro- 


11(5  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

claims  the  unreality  of  sin,  if  he  have  any  influence 
in  the  community,  is  about  as  harmful  a  member  of 
society  as  can  exist. 

The  denial  of  suffering  and  death,  the  denial  of 
poverty  and  sin,  have  had  a  markedly  observable 
effect  in  Christian  Science  circles  in  drying  up  the 
springs  of  the  sweetest  and  tenderest  of  human  feel- 
ings. If  none  of  these  things  really  exist,  there  can 
be  no  occasion  for  charity,  for  compassion,  for  sym- 
pathy, and  to  give  expression  to  any  of  these  senti- 
ments is  to  admit  the  reality  of  the  things  Mrs.  Eddy 
affirms  to  be  unreal.  One  cannot  be  a  Christian 
Scientist  and  have  in  his  heart  the  Christ-like  emotions 
of  sympathy  and  charity  and  compassion.  It  is  said 
that  the  faces  of  Christian  Scientists  wear  a  perpetual 
smile.  It  is  the  stereotyped  smile  of  affected  cheer- 
fulness and  it  covers  a  heart  from  which  the  most 
humane  and  attractive  qualities  have  been,  as  nearly 
as  may  be,  rooted  out.    But  to  return  to  the  healers. 

I  know  a  woman  who  was  a  successful  healer  for 
fifteen  years  and  as  conscientious  as  any  of  them, 
and  she  is  now  frank  enough  to  say  that  she  never 
healed  any  one  of  any  real  disease  or  serious  indis- 
position in  all  that  time,  and  doesn't  know  of  any 
other  healer  who  did.  They  simply  fool  them- 
selves and  their  patients  by  denying  the  reality 
of  disease  so  long  as  there  is  breath  in  the  body, 
and  when  death  occurs  and  actually  confronts 
them,  they  deny  the  reality  of  death.  Could  ab- 
surdity further  go? 

Perhaps  it  is  due  to  their  belief  in  the  unreality  of 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  ll7 

death,  that  they  permit  no  funerals  in  their  churches; 
perhaps,  also,  it  may  be  due  to  their  unwillingness, 
from  a  business  standpoint,  to  admit  that  Christian 
Scientists,  young  and  old,  die  just  as  do  the  benighted 
people  who  have  not  bowed  down  to  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Surely,  if  the  heahngs  of  Christian  Scientists  were 
realities,  once  a  convert  would  mean  always  a  con- 
vert; but  it  is  a  fact  that  people  are  coming  out  of 
Christian  Science  as  rapidly  as  they  are  going  in,  and 
the  more  intelligence  they  have  the  more  quickly 
they  abandon  the  thing  when  they  come  to  under- 
stand what  it  is.  If  you  are  all  right  in  the  region 
of  the  brain  and  all  right  in  the  region  of  the  heart, 
you  won't  tarry  very  long  in  the  Christian  Science 
camp.  I  know  many  ex-Christian  Scientists  who  de- 
nounce it  as  roundly  as  I  do  and  declare  it  to  be  a 
fraud  in  all  its  aspects.  I  could  name  hundreds  of 
people,  formerly  zealous  followers  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  who 
now  repudiate  her  with  scorn  and  contumely.  Would 
they  do  this  if  she  were  in  fact  the  miracle  worker 
she  claims  to  be,  and  if  Christian  Science  were  in  fact 
the  sovereign  antidote  to  sickness,  sin  and  death? 

The  following  is  taken  from  a  letter  recently 
received  from  a  gentleman  of  exceptional  intelhgence: 

"I  have  been  connected  with  that  church  for  five 
years  and  have  lately  had  my  eyes  opened  to  the 
most  cold-blooded  skin  game  conceivable  under  the 
guise  of  a  religion.  Having  conducted  a  Christian 
Science  sanitarium  for  three  years,  I  am  in  possession 
of  facts  unknown  to  any  but  "Christian  Scientists,  and 
to  only  a  few  of  the  inner  circle  of  grafters.     I  was  a 


118  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

student  of  medicine  at  Harvard  in  the  70s,  am  a 
B.A.  of  the  University  of  New  Brunswick,  Canada, 
and  ought  to  have  known  better  —  but  there  are 
others.'' 

Christian  Science  is  a  "skin  game"  and  the 
powers  that  be  in  Christian  Science  are  the  "inner 
circle  of  grafters"!  Strange  language  this  to  be 
applied  to  a  "religion"  and  its  leading  officials  by  a 
former  believer ;  but  it  is  precisely  as  former  Christian 
Scientists,  men  and  women,  speak  of  the  thing  and 
the  people  they  have  repudiated. 

Cures  of  real  or  imaginary  illness  are  sometimes 
effected  in  very  extraordinary  ways.  Being  recently 
in  San  Francisco,  I  talked  with  a  friend,  a  lawyer, 
there  who  had  gone  through  the  experience  of  the 
earthquake.  The  house  in  which  he  was  born  and 
in  which  he  lived  was  burned  to  the  ground  after  its 
contents  had  been  dragged  out  and  heaped  up  upon 
a  vacant  lot,  and  he  turned  from  his  law  office,  his 
library  shelves  crowded  with  books,  no  one  of  which 
he  had  an  opportunity  to  save  from  the  devastating 
flames.  The  experience  was  an  intensely  distressing 
and  exhausting  one.  For  two  days  and  two  nights 
he  did  not  get  a  wink  of  sleep.  Prior  to  the  earth- 
quake and  fire,  he  had  been  a  constant  sufferer  from 
the  most  excruciating  headaches.  Not  a  headache 
has  he  had  since !     Cured  by  earthquake ! 

I  talked  with  another  gentleman,  and  he  told  me 
that  his  mother-in-law  had  been  bedridden  for  five 
years,  and  not  once  in  that  time  had  put  her  foot 
upon   the   floor.     She   had   not   attempted   to   walk 


A    BOGUS    HEALING    SYSTEM  119 

because  she  was  positive  she  was  unable  to  walk  and 
her  death  was  daily  expected.  As  the  flames  ap- 
proached the  region  of  her  residence,  my  friend  and 
his  wife  started  off  in  different  directions  to  find  some 
form  of  conveyance  to  carry  their  mother  to  a  place 
of  safety,  and  when  they  returned,  in  about  an  hour, 
she  had  vanished.  Unaided,  she  had  gotten  up, 
dressed  herself,  and  walked  between  two  and  three 
miles!     Cured  by  conflagration! 

Marvelous  cures  these,  almost  in  the  nature  of 
miracles;  and  yet  even  a  Christian  Scientist  would 
smile  disdainfully  if  earthquake  and  conflagration 
were  seriously  prescribed  for  headache  and  paralysis. 

No  doubt  people  have  recovered  of  illness  while 
under  Christian  Science  treatment;  just  as  they  have 
when  under  no  treatment;  but  the  Christian  Science 
inane  treatment  was  no  more  the  cause  of  the  re- 
covery than  was  the  absence  of  treatment  of  any 
kind. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  delusive  sickness,  which  is 
easily  cured  by  a  putting  away  of  the  delusion,  and 
there  was  never  yet  any,  but  a  delusive,  cure  by 
Christian  Science  of  an  organic  disease  —  not  one. 
Will  Mrs.  Eddy  and  all  her  healers  and  followers 
throughout  the  world  be  able  to  add  one  moment, 
one  breath,  to  the  life  of  Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  when  the 
hour  of  her  death  has  arrived?  No,  deny  the  reality 
of  disease  and  death  as  they  may,  it  comes  to  them 
one  and  all,  just  as  to  others,  when  the  angel  of  death 
approaches  and  beckons  from  the  darkness  that 
closes  upon  their  drooping  eyes. 


120  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

I  am  sure  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  an}^ 
honest,  clear-thinking  mind  that  has  followed  me 
thus  far,  that  all  of  these  monstrous  and  irreverent 
pretensions  of  the  leader  and  founder  of  Christian 
Science  are  wholly  false,  and  I  am  equally  confident 
that  I  shall  establish  in  the  mind  of  those  who  go 
with  me  to  the  end  of  my  showing,  that  Mrs.  Eddy's 
frauds  have  had  their  incentive  in  a  purely  mercenary 
motive;  that  she  has  claimed  to  have  received  a 
revelation  from  God  and  equality  with  Jesus  and  the 
performance  of  miracles  for  the  purpose  alone  of 
fooling  people  into  placing  an  extraordinary  value 
upon  her  valueless  teachings  for  which  she  has  made 
extortionate  charges;  that  she  has  claimed  to  be  the 
fulfilment  of  Biblical  prophecy,  "the  woman  clothed 
with  the  sun,"  and  that  her  book,  "Science  and 
Health, "  was  the  little  book  held  in  the  hand  of  the 
angel,  that  she  is  herself  the  feminine  impersonation, 
as  Jesus  was  the  masculine  impersonation,  of  the 
immaculate  idea,  and  that,  not  she,  but  God  was  the 
author  of  her  book,  solely  and  only  that  she  might 
build  up  a  powerful  organization  and  a  large  fortune. 
Money  and  power  are  the  explanations  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
frauds,  her  lies,  her  blasphemies,  I  will  even  say  of 
her  crimes,  for  when  crime  could,  as  she  believed,  be 
accomplished  through  mental  effort,  maliciously  em- 
ployed for  the  destruction  of  her  enemies,  she  has  not 
hesitated  so  to  seek  its  accomplishment,  and  her 
whole  career,  for  thirty  or  forty  years  past,  has  been 
the  crime  of  obtaining  money  by  false  pretenses. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Immeasurable  Greed 

LET  us  now  go  with  some  particularity  into  these 
charges  that  I  make  against  Mrs.  Eddy.  I 
charge  that  she  has  been  and  is  wholly  mercenary; 
that  her  pretended  revelation,  her  pretended  excep- 
tional character  as  successor  to  Jesus,  her  pretended 
marvelous  curative  powers,  are  dishonestly  invented 
and  put  forth,  first,  as  a  means  of  making  money,  and 
then  as  a  means  of  acquiring  despotic  power. 

First,  as  to  the  mercenary  motive. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  activity  as  a  teacher  of  Christian 
Science  began  in  the  year  1870,  after  leaving  Stoughton 
and  going  to  Lynn,  Massachusetts.  She  was  then  in 
her  fiftieth  year,  and  from  the  time  of  her  marriage  to 
Glover  in  1843  had  been  extremely  poor.  Christian 
Science,  at  the  very  outset,  took  on  a  mone}^- 
making  character.  Her  famiharity  with  Quimby's 
teachings,  transformed  into  a  discovery  of  her  own, 
and  then  into  a  revelation  from  God,  became 
with  her  a  business  asset  to  be  utilized  for  revenue 
only. 

In  the  introduction  to  her  ''Science  and  Health," 
pubHshed  in  1898,  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  her  "first 
pamphlet  on  Christian  Science  was  copyrighted  in 
1870,  but  it  did  not  appear  in  print  until   1876,  as 

121 


122  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

she  had  learned  that  this  science  must  be  demon- 
strated by  heahng  before  a  work  on  the  subject 
could  be  profitably  published."  I  emphasize  the 
word  "profitably."  At  the  very  start  there  was  the 
resolution  in  the  woman's  heart  that  this  "science," 
ultimately  to  become  a  "religion,"  was  not  to  be 
given  to  the  world  until  it  could  be  published  with 
profit  to  her,  and  from  the  beginning,  until  now, 
profit  has  been  her  first  and  main  consideration. 

In  the  Banner  of  Light,  the  organ  of  the 
spiritualists,  of  July  4,  1869,  and  three  years  after 
the  date  she  now  claims  as  the  time  of  the  "revela- 
tion," Mrs.  Eddy,  then  Mrs.  Glover,  published  the 
following  advertisement: 

"Any  person  desiring  to  learn  how  to  heal  the 
sick  can  receive  of  the  undersigned  instruction  that 
will  enable  them  to  commence  healing  on  a  principle 
of  science  with  success  far  beyond  any  of  the  present 
modes.  No  medicine,  electricity,  physiology  or 
Hygiene  required  for  unparalleled  success  in  the  most 
difficult  cases.  No  pay  is  required  unless  the  skill 
is  obtained.  Address  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Glover,  Ames- 
bury,  Mass.,  Box  61." 

One  is  reminded  of  the  flaunting  advertisements 
of  the  cut-rate  drug  stores,  guaranteeing  a  cure  by  a 
liberal  use  of  patent  medicines  or  a  return  of  the 
money. 

Mrs.  Eddy  started  out  with  the  guarantee  system, 
no  skill  imparted,  no  money  required;  but  it  may  be 
believed  that  the  guarantee  system  was  speedily 
abandoned.  There  was  no  money  in  a  guarantee  of 
skill  to  heal  disease  through  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings, 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  123 

and  a  change  was  speedily  made  to  the  permanently- 
adopted  system  of  ''cash  in  advance.'' 

It  appears  that^  as  to  teaching,  there  was  a  pro- 
gressive scale  of  charges.  First  it  was  whatever  she 
could  get;  then  $100  in  advance,  with  ten  per  cent 
royalty  on  the  students'  subsequent  income  from 
practice,  and  $1,000  if,  having  learned  the  system, 
he  did  not  care  to  practise  it;  then  $300  for  twelve 
lessons,  cash  "strictly  in  advance,"  and  ultimately 
$300  for  seven  lessons,  "cash  strictly  in  advance." 

I  have  examined  the  court  record  in  two  litiga- 
tions instituted  by  Mrs.  Eddy  (years  after  God  had, 
as  she  says,  selected  her  for  her  divine  mission),  for 
the  recovery  of  money  alleged  by  her  to  be  due  upon 
a  contract  reading  as  follows: 

"We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby  agree,  in  con- 
sideration of  instructions  and  manuscripts  received 
from  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Glover,  to  pay  her  $100  in  advance, 
and  ten  per  cent  annually  on  the  income  that  we 
receive  from  practicing  or  teaching  the  same.  We 
also  do  hereby  agree  to  pay  the  said  Mary  B.  Glover 
$1,000  in  case  we  do  not  practice  or  teach  the  science 
she  has  taught  us." 

The  Banner  of  Light  advertisement  was  dated 
July  4,  1869,  and  one  of  the  contracts  is  dated  August 
17,  1870,  so  it  will  be  seen  how  brief  was  the  duration 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  guarantee  system  of  operating. 

I  think,  in  all  her  lawsuits  for  the  recovery  of 
tuition  Mrs.  Eddy  never  prevailed  after  a  hearing  upon 
the  merits,  and  in  one  of  them,  the  Judge,  who  tried 
her  case,  after  having  heard  her  testimony  in  full,  said: 


124  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

"I  do  not  find  any  instruction  given  by  her  nor 
any  explanations  of  her  'science'  or  'method  of  heal- 
ing,' which  are  intelHgible  to  ordinary  comprehen- 
sion, or  which  could  in  any  way  be  of  value  in  fitting 
the  defendant  as  a  competent  and  successful  practi- 
tioner of  any  intelHgible  art  or  method  of  healing 
the  sick.  And  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  consideration 
for  the  agreement  has  wholly  failed,  and  I  so  find." 

This  finding  of  the  court  is  interesting  as  a  judicial 
estimate,  based  upon  her  own  sworn  testimony,  of 
the  value  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Christian  Science,  which  has 
never  been  any  more  intelligible  to  any  one  else  than 
it  was  to  the  learned  Judge. 

In  1881,  Mrs.  Eddy  established  what  she  called  the 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  which  was  an 
institution  for  the  turning  out  of  Christian  Science 
healers.  Her  adopted  son  and  husband,  with  her- 
self, constituted  the  faculty  of  this  remarkable  in- 
stitution, and  the  entire  college  course  consisted  of 
twelve  lessons.  The  following  is  taken  from  an 
advertisement  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  organ,  for  September,  1886, 
under  the  heading,  "Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College,  Rev.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  President, 
571  Columbus  Ave.,  Boston,  Mass.": 

"The  collegiate  course  in  Christian  Science  meta- 
physical healing  includes  twelve  lessons.  Class  con- 
venes at  10  a.m.  The  first  week,  six  consecutive  lessons. 
The  term  continues  about  three  weeks.  Tuition,  three 
hundred  dollars.     Tuition  for  all  strictly  in  advance.'' 

Remember  that  this  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  charge 
fifteen  years  after  God  had,  by  revelation,  as  she  says, 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  125 

freely  imparted  to  her  what  she  was  here  advertising  to 
sell  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  dollars  per  lesson, 
cash  "strictly  in  advance."  Mrs.  Eddy's  was  a 
strictly  cash  business,  no  trust,  no  "revelation" 
C.O.D.,  or  on  the  installment  plan,  and  no  money 
returned  however  dissatisfied  with  the  purchase. 

Referring  to  this  charge  of  three  hundred  dollars 
for  twelve  lessons,  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  her  book,  "Re- 
trospection and  Introspection,"  has  perpetrated  one 
of  the  funniest  passages  to  be  found  in  all  literature : 

"When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  Chris- 
tian Science  mind  healing,"  she  says,  "/  could  think 
of  no  financial  equivalent  for  the  impartation  of  a 
knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which  heals;  but 
/  was  led  to  name  three  hundred  dollars  as  the  price 
for  each  pupil  in  one  course  of  lessons  at  my  college ; 
a  startling  sum  for  tuition  lasting  barely  three  weeks. 
This  amount  greatly  troubled  me.  I  shrank  from  ask- 
ing it,  but  was  finally  led  by  a  strange  Providence  to 
accept  this  fee.  God  has  since  shown  me  in  multi- 
tudinous ways  the  wisdom  of  this  decision." 

The  idea  of  setting  a  price  on  Christian  Science 
mind  healing  never  occurred  to  Mrs.  Eddy  until  God 
called  it  to  her  attention  and  impelled  her  to  it. 
Unaided,  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  have  thought 
of  or  wished  to  establish  a  financial  equivalent  for  the 
impartation  of  a  knowledge  of  that  "divine  power 
which  heals,"  but,  led  by  Divine  Providence,  she 
finally  consented  to  name  three  hundred  dollars  as 
the  price.  God,  from  his  seat  at  the  center  of  the 
universe,  turning  His  attention  from  the  laws  that 
hold  the  spheres  in  their  orbits,  leaning  earthward, 


126  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

whispered  in  the  attentive  woman's  ear,  "Mary,  a 
price  should  be  charged  for  my  word.  It  is  a  private 
snap,  all  your  own,  and  three  hundred  dollars  is 
about  the  proper  figure.  So  troubled  was  this  diffi- 
dent person  by  the  divine  command,  that  she  posi- 
tively shrank,  retreated  before  it  with  her  hands 
clasped  tight  behind  her.  How  persistent  must  the 
Almighty  have  been  to  have  overcome  such  hesitancy! 
How  He  must  have  labored  to  convince  the  woman  that 
His  revelation  was  expressly  designed  for  her  pecuniary 
profit.  But  God  triumphed  and  Mrs.  Eddy  yielded, 
and  subsequently  in  multitudinous  ways  Providence 
demonstrated  to  her  the  wisdom  of  her  decision — 
multitudinous  ways — and  multitudinous  dollars. 

So  shrinkingly  did  Mrs.  Eddy  prevail  upon  her- 
self, finally,  to  accept  this  God-ordained  financial 
equivalent  for  "impartation  of  the  divine  power  that 
heals"  to  those  who  could  afford  to  pay  in  advance 
for  it  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  dollars  per  hour,  that 
a  large  imagination  may  possibly  conceive  of  the 
struggle  with  herself  necessary  to  enable  her  to  bring 
suit  in  the  courts  to  recover  from  those  she  had  been 
foolish  enough  to  trust,  notwithstanding  her  noble 
resolution  to  carry  on  a  strictly  cash  business;  and 
surely  it  will  be  quite  impossible  for  any  one,  however 
gifted  with  imaginative  faculty,  to  realize  what 
the  poor  creature  must  have  suffered  to  overcome  the 
** shrinking"  that  possessed  her  modest  soul  so  far 
as  to  enable  her  to  increase  her  charge  by  almost  a 
hundred  per  cent,  as  she  did  in  a  couple  of  years. 

If  we  may  judge^by  results,  it  must  be  admitted 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  127 

that  the  wisdom,  the  commercial  wisdom,  of  her 
decision,  whether  shown  by  God  or  not,  was  quite 
clearly  demonstrated,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  "dur- 
ing seven  years  some  four  thousand  students  were 
taught  by  me  (her)  in  this  college."  Four  thousand 
students,  at  three  hundred  dollars  per  student,  for  a 
"college"  course  of  twelve  lessons!  Four  thousand 
times  three  hundred  equals  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand,  and  one  million  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  may  be  said  to  be  fairly  reasonable  compen- 
sation for  instruction,  even  in  Christian  Science, 
covering  a  period  of  sevgn  years,  especially  as  it  was 
all  in  the  family.  A  family  of  three,  even  three 
adults,  as  frugal  and  thrifty  as  these,  could  comfort- 
ably provide  themselves  with  the  necessaries  of  life 
upon  an  income  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
dollars  a  year. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  put  herself  to  some  trouble  to  show 
that  she  got  the  full  three  hundred  dollars  from  every 
one  of  the  four  thousand  students.  I  don't  think  she 
did,  but  I  have  no  doubt  she  tried  to.  However, 
she  says  she  did,  in  these  words: 

"I  wrote  'Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures,'  taught  students  for  a  tuition  of  $300 
each  and  seldom  taught  without  having  charity 
scholars,  sometimes  a  dozen  or  upwards  in  one  class. 
Afterwards,  with  touching  tenderness,  those  very 
students  sent  me  the  full  tuition  money.  However, 
I  returned  this  money  with  love;  but  it  was  again 
mailed  to  me  in  letters  begging  me  to  accept  it, 
saying,  'Your  teachings  are  worth  much  more  to 
me  than  money  can  be.'" 


128  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

God  had  decided  that  three  hundred  dollars  was  a 
financial  equivalent  for  the  teaching;  but  the  grateful 
students  deemed  its  value  beyond  financial  computa- 
tion. Presumably  the  payment  of  the  large  tuition 
was,  in  itself,  a  means  of  grace  and  power,  just  as  those 
who  have  paid  the  healers'. bills  most  promptly  have 
recovered  most  speedily. 

According  to  its  founder,  "Christian  Science 
demonstrates  that  the  patient  who  pays  whatever 
he  is  able  to  pay  for  being  healed  is  more  apt  to  re- 
cover than  he  who  withholds  the  slight  equivalent 
for  health."  Pay  well,  extremely  well,  for  teaching 
if  you  aim  to  become  a  great  healer;  and  impress  upon 
your  patients  the  pronounced  curative  properties  of 
prompt  and  liberal  payment  of  their  bills  for  treat- 
ment! 

President  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  and  her  faculty, 
which,  when  it  did  not  consist  of  herself  alone,  in- 
cluded her  third  husband  and  adopted  son,  do  not 
seem  to  have  needed  a  bargain  counter  for  marked 
down  educations.  Marked  up  educations  in  Christian 
Science  were  the  ones  that  sold  best,  as  Mrs.  Eddy 
wisely  foresaw.  So,  after  only  a  couple  of  years  of 
the  God-established  rate  of  three  hundred  dollars  for 
twelve  lessons,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  learned  faculty 
concluded  to  set  aside  God's  judgment  and  raise  the 
rates.  They  thriftily,  and  "shrinkingly,"  of  course, 
resolved  that  three  hundred  dollars  for  so  many  as 
twelve  lessons,  although  advised  by  God,  was  in  truth 
not  a  fair  "financial  equivalent  for  an  impartation  of 
a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which  heals,"  and 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  129 

in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  December,  1888, 
twenty-two  years  after  God  had,  as  she  says,  freely 
revealed  it  to  her,  Mrs.  Eddy  pubHshed  the  following 
notice : 

"Having  reached  a  place  in  teaching  where  my 
students  in  Christian  Science  are  taught  more  during 
seven  lessons  in  the  primary  class  than  they  were 
formerly  in  twelve,  and  taught  all  that  is  profitable 
at  one  time,  hereafter  the  primary  class  will  include 
seven  lessons  only.  As  this  number  of  lessons  is  of 
more  value  than  twice  this  number  in  times  past,  no 
change  is  made  in  the  price  of  tuition,  three  hundred 
dollars.     Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

Three  hundred  dollars  for  seven  lessons,  forty-two 
dollars  per  lesson,  from  each  person  in  the  primary 
class  of  unalloyed  humbug,  by  a  rank  impostor!  Over 
two  thousand  dollars  for  each  single  lesson  to  classes 
of  fifty,  and  thousands  of  people  living  in  the  most 
enUghtened  portion  of  the  world,  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  willing  to  pay  it!  Verily  there 
is  ground  for  humbleness  of  spirit  in  such  a  display 
of  credulity,  not  to  say  imbecility,  or,  as  Mark  Twain 
would  say,  asininity,  in  this  so-called  enlightened 
age! 

Does  not,  in  all  sincerity,  I  ask,  does  not  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "shrinking"  suggest  in  an  impressive  and 
beautiful  way  the  chaste  hesitancy  of  the  hungry 
pig  as  he  scrambles  on  all  fours  into  the  replenished 
trough ! 

Recall  the  picture  of  the  haloed  Mrs.  Eddy  stand- 
ing by  His  side  and  holding  the  Saviour's  hand,  as 
illustrative  of  equality  and  "Christian  Unity";  and 


130  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

imagine,  if  imagination  be  equal  to  the  task,  Jesus 
availing  Himself  of  His  communion  and  kinship 
with  the  Father  to  accumulate  money.  Fancy  His 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  being  imparted,  after  the  pay- 
ment to  Him  by  each  disciple  of  a  financial  equivalent 
of  the  proportions  of  the  Eddy  exaction.  See  Him 
crowding  into  the  courts  those  poor  unfortunates  who 
were  unable  to  pay,  and  by  the  employment  of  legal 
process  seeking  to  wrest  it  from  them.  Imagine  His 
requiring  all  His  disciples  to  sign  a  contract  to  pay  so 
much  in  advance,  such  a  percentage  of  their  annual  in- 
come from  heahng,  and  one  thousand  dollars  forfeit 
if  they  were  indisposed  to  heal  after  having  been 
taught.  Hear  Him  instructing  His  disciples  to  go 
into  all  the  world,  teach  the  gospel  to  every  creature 
for  cash  strictly  in  advance,  to  lay  hands  upon  the 
sick  and  assure  them  that  they  would  be  more  likely 
to  be  healed  after  having  paid  whatever  they  were 
able  to  pay  for  the  service. 

Again,  may  we  hear  the  burst  of  divine  indignation 
at  the  impious  and  infamous  pretensions  of  this  sordid 
creature!  Again  the  words,  "Ye  serpents,  ye  genera- 
tion of  vipers!  How  can  ye  escape  the  damnation 
of  hell"! 

But  teaching  was  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  only  bonanza, 
and  her  income  from  teaching  was  only  a  fraction  of 
her  total  income. 

In  1875,  or  thereabouts,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a  book  on 
her  hands  that  she  had  most  laboriously  written,  and 
for  which  she  must  create  a  market.  The  book  was 
the  veriest  rubbish  and,  with  only  her  name  to  back  it, 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  131 

was  utterly  without  value  to  any  one.  In  course  of 
time,  it  not  selling  readily,  the  idea  seems  to  have 
dawned  upon  her  that,  if  she  could  make  people 
believe  that  this  book,  this  crude,  incoherent  jumbling 
together  of  meaningless  terms,  was  in  very  deed  the 
Word  of  God,  the  Infallible,  the  All-wise,  and  that 
its  mere  perusal  would  cure  disease,  a  market  would 
be  created  for  it  and  her  fortune  would  be  made.  Act- 
ing upon  this  theory,  little  by  little  she  advanced  the 
idea  that  the  contents  of  the  book  came  to  her  by 
revelation,  and  she  soon  reached  a  point  where  she 
did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  it  is,  in  its  details  and 
in  its  completeness,  the  "Word  of  God"  in  precisely 
the  same  sense  and  to  precisely  the  same  extent  that 
the  Christian  believes  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  word 
of  God. 

She  would  blush,  she  says,  to  speak  of  "Science 
and  Health"  as  she  does,  "were  it  of  human  origin" 
and  she  "  apart  from  God  its  author,"  and  "No  human 
pen  or  tongue  taught  me  the  Science  contained  in  this 
book  and  neither  tongue  nor  pen  can  overthrow  it;" 
and  she  boldly  affirms  it  to  have  been  expressly 
"authorized  by  Christ"  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Bible. 
Referring  to  its  curative  properties,  she  said,  "The 
perusal  of  the  author's  publications  heals  sickness. " 

With  these  affirmations  the  humbug  was  consum- 
mated and  the  book  placed  upon  a  parity  with,  nay, 
upon  a  higher  plane  than,  the  Bible,  for  I  think  it  has 
never  been  said  that  the  mere  reading  of  the  Bible 
cures  disease ;  but  never  for  a  moment  did  the  shrewd 
woman  relax  her  hold  upon  her  copyright  or  permit 


132  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

the  publication,  outside  the  covers  of  her  copyrighted 
books,  of  even  so  much  as  her  so-called  spiritual  in- 
terpretation of  the  Lord's  Prayer  or  the  tenets  of  the 
faith.  Everybody  must  pay  her  a  royalty  for  access 
even  to  her  prayers  and  her  creed.  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
been  wise  in  her  day  and  generation.  She  knew  how 
large  a  part  of  the  public  likes  to  be  fooled  all  the 
time,  and  she  has  fooled  and  now  fools  a  very  con- 
siderable part  to  the  very  top  of  its  bent. 

Many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  of  this 
book  have  been  sold  at  three  dollars  and  upwards 
per  copy.  It  is  entitled,  "Science  and  Health,  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  although  the  only  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  touched  upon  by  the  alleged  "Key"  are 
the  first  chapter  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  last 
chapter  of  the  New,  Genesis  and  Revelation.  To 
the  intervening  goodly  portions  God  does  not,  through 
Mrs.  Eddy,  appear  to  have  furnished  us  any  "Key." 

"A  Christian  Scientist,"  says  Mrs.  Eddy  "requires 
my  work  '  Science  and  Health '  for  his  text  book,  as  do 
all  his  students  and  patients;"  the  soul's  salvation 
and  body's  health  being  dependent  upon  the  pur- 
chase and  perusal  thereof. 

The  organization  of  the  Massachusetts  Meta- 
physical College,  so  called,  which,  let  me  again  affirm, 
was  a  sham  affair  from  start  to  finish,  without  college 
building,  classrooms,  faculty,  curriculum  or  entrance 
or  graduating  examinations,  this  institution  was  a 
valuable  agency  for  the  distribution  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
inspired  and  curative  and  copyrighted  and  costly 
writings,  and  so  have  been  the  First  Church  of  Christ, 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  133 

Scientist,  in  Boston,  the  Mother  Church,  so  called, 
and  all  the  other  Christian  Science  churches,  of  which 
the  book  itself  has  been,  by  her  decree,  constituted 
the  impersonal  "pastor."  Every  member  of  every 
church  and  every  student  at  the  "college"  must  have 
a  copy  of  the  inspired  "Science  and  Health,"  at  three 
dollars  per  copy,  for  the  cheapest  editions.  (There 
is  good  profit  in  three  dollars  for  a  book  costing  not 
over  fifty  cents  to  publish  —  five  hundred  per  cent 
profit.)  Every  teacher  of  Christian  Science  and 
every  teacher's  student  must  have  a  copy  of  "Science 
and  Health"  properly  to  teach  and  to  understand 
Mrs.  Eddy's  "Science." 

Every  one  of  the  five  thousand  advertising  Chris- 
tian Science  healers  must  keep  a  stock  of  the  books  on 
hand  and  sell  them  to  their  patients,  who  are  made  to 
believe,  or  to  try  to  believe,  Mrs.  Eddy's  absurd  pre- 
tension that  its  mere  perusal  cures  disease,  at  prices 
ranging  from  three  to  six  dollars,  according  to  binding. 
And,  finally,  chapters  having  been  transposed,  the 
most  trivial  additions  made  or  a  different  picture  of 
the  author  inserted,  all  hands  are  invited,  no  matter 
how  many  copies  may  already  be  upon  their  shelves, 
to  again  step  up  and  buy  another  copy,  the  revised 
edition,  containing  matter  said  to  be  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  their  bodily  and  spiritual  welfare,  and 
all  obediently  accept  the  invitation. 

In  the  words  of  our  friend.  Colonel  Sellers  of  joy- 
ful memory,  "There's  millions  in  it"!!! 

It  would  be  difficult  to  convince  any  one  of  the 
boundless  audacity  employed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  pro- 


134  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

mote  the  sale  of  this  worthless  book,  if  the  authorita- 
tive evidence  over  her  own  signature  were  not  avail- 
able; but  she  has  convicted  herself,  has  proven  in 
her  own  hand  over  her  own  signature  that  the  author 
of  this  book,  the  founder  of  this  alleged  religion  and 
the  pretended  successor  to  Jesus  is  the  arch  impostor 
of  all  time. 

Before  I  quote  the  grabber  of  money  against  the 
"founder"  of  a  "religion,"  let  me  remind  you  that  it 
was  and  is  a  part  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  that  her  teach- 
ings complete  the  teachings  of  Jesus;  that  her  "re- 
ligion" completes  the  reHgion  of  Christ;  that,  as 
Jesus  said,  "No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by 
Me,"  so  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  effect,  says,  "No  man  cometh 
unto  the  Father  but  by  Jesus,  and  me."  To  come 
unto  the  Father  is  to  obtain  knowledge  of  the  Father, 
and,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  while  incomplete  knowl- 
edge may  be  obtained  through  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
complete  knowledge  of  the  Father  is  attainable  only 
through  Jesus  and  her.  She  has  established  and  or- 
ganized The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Bos- 
ton, ostensibly  to  lead  into  complete  knowledge  of  the 
Father  those  who  seek  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
Bearing  this  in  mind,  note  what  follows,  taken  from 
the  March,  1897,  Christian  Science  Journal,  signed 
by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  and  published  just  as  her 
book,  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  was  placed  upon 
the  market  and  for  the  sole  purpose  of  promoting 
its  sale. 

She  says:  "Christian  Scientists  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  are  hereby  enjoined  not  to  teach 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  135 

a  student  of  Christian  Science  for  one  year,  com- 
mencing on  March  14,  1897. 

"Miscellaneous  Writings  is  calculated  to  prepare 
the  minds  of  all  true  thinkers  to  understand  the 
Christian  Science  text  book  more  correctly  than  a 
student  can. 

"The  Bible,  'Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures,'  and  my  other  published  works,  are  the 
only  proper  instructors  for  this  hour.  //  shall  be 
the  duty  of  all  Christian  Scientists  to  circulate  and  to 
sell  as  many  of  these  books  as  they  can. 

''If  a  member  of  The  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientists,  shall  fail  to  obey  this  injunction,  it  will 
render  him  liable  to  lose  his  membership  in  this  church. 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

At  this  time  there  were  upwards  of  twenty  thou- 
sand members,  resident  and  non-resident,  of  this 
church,  and  every  one  of  them  was  by  this  decree  re- 
quired to  become  a  canvasser  for  the  sale  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  books.  Twenty  thousand  unpaid  vendors  of 
her  worthless  patent  medicine,  upon  which  there  was 
a  profit  of  five  hundred  per  cent!  Is  it  not  enough 
to  make  other  manufacturers  of  proprietary  concoc- 
tions turn  green  with  envy ! 

This  compulsory  sale  of  her  books  was  in  1897, 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  was  seventy-six,  but  she  is  the  same 
woman  today,  at  eighty-eight  years  of  age.  With 
only  a  few  steps  between  her  and  the  grave,  she 
reaches  out  her  withered,  palsied  hand  to  grab,  grab, 
grab. 

One  of  her  latter-day  schemes  for  bleeding  the 
faithful  has  been,  as  I  have  indicated,  to  publish  fre- 
quent "revised"  editions  of  her  great  work,  "Science 


136  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

and  Health,"  with  the  announcement  of  additions  to 
its  text  necessary  to  growth  in  "Science."  Every- 
body must  buy  a  new  book  and  add  a  new  profit  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  coffers. 

In  February,  1908,  over  her  signature,  she  pub- 
Hshed  this: 

"Take  Notice 
"I  request  Christian  Scientists  universally  to  read 
the  paragraph  beginning  at  line  thirty  of  page  442  in 
the  edition  of  'Science  and  Health,'  which  will  be 
issued,  February  29.  I  consider  the  information 
there  given  to  be  of  great  importance  at  this  stage  of 
the  workings  of  animal  magnetism,  and  it  will  greatly 
aid  the  students  in  their  individual  experiences. 

"Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

Shortly  after  the  time  of  the  publication  of  this 
notice  (the  litigation  brought  by  her  sons  being  still 
pending)  Senator  Chandler,  their  senior  coimsel  with 
whom  I  was  associated,  happened  to  be  in  Boston. 
As  the  Senator  was  particularly  interested  in  keeping 
tabs  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  mental  attitude  toward  so-called 
"animal  magnetism,"  he  asked  me  if  I  would  procure 
for  him  a  copy  of  this  edition,  as  her  notice  seemed  to 
indicate  a  possible  change  in  her  point  of  view  on  that 
subject.  After  protesting  mildly  that  I  hated  to  put 
any  good  money  into  that  fake  enterprise,  I  went  to 
the  publication  office  in  Boston  and  asked  for  a  copy 
of  the  edition  of  "Science  and  Health"  pubHshed  on 
February  29.  The  clerk  in  attendance  informed  me 
that  the  edition  was  completely  exhausted,  but  that 
another  edition  containing  those  alterations  and  others 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  137 

could  be  had.  Insisting  that  no  other  edition  than 
the  one  of  February  29  would  answer  my  purpose,  a 
somewhat  worn  copy  was  finally  produced  as  the  only 
one  in  the  place  and  I  was  told  I  could  have  it,  if  I 
didn't  object  to  its  condition.  Turning  to  page  442 
and  running  my  eye  down  to  line  thirty,  where  there 
was  a  httle  paragraph  of  two  lines,  I  returned  the 
book  to  the  clerk  and  said  it  v/as  not  what  I  wanted,  as 
it  didn't  appear  to  contain  the  new  matter  of  "great 
importance"  referred  to  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  published 
notice.  Upon  his  assurance,  however,  that  it  was 
the  volume  published  on  February  29  and  that  the 
paragraph  of  two  lines,  at  line  thirty,  page  442, was 
the  paragraph  referred  to  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  notice,  I 
tucked  the  little  gold  brick  under  my  arm,  reluctantly 
parted  with  my  three  good  dollars  and,  returning  to 
the  Parker  House,  handed  it  to  Senator  Chandler 
without  a  word. 

Turning  to  page  442,  the  Senator  paused  at  Hne 
thirty  long  enough  to  read  the  paragraph  of  two  lines, 
and  then,  looking  up,  exclaimed: 

"What  a  swindle!  Do  you  suppose  any  one  can  be 
of  so  little  intelligence,  who  buys  that  book  in  con- 
sequence of  Mrs.  Eddy's  notice  and  reads  this  para- 
graph, that  he  does  not  feel,  as  we  feel,  that  he  has 
been  swindled?" 

I  assured  the  Senator  that,  in  my  judgment,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  following  was  largely  made  up  of  people  who 
dearly  loved  to  hand  their  money  over  to  her,  that 
nothing  else  gave  them  quite  such  joy  and  that  they 
would  be  only  too  dehghted  and  satisfied  to  be  told 


138  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

by  Mrs.  Eddy  that  they  must  be  a  law  unto  themselves 
in  order  to  be  protected,  sleeping  or  awake,  from  the 
foul  fiend  of  animal  magnetism.  As  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
her  students  said  of  her  teachings  for  which  they  had 
rapturously  parted  with  three  hundred  dollars,  "it  was 
worth  more  to  them  than  money  could  possibly  be." 
What  was  this  information,  of  ''great  importance,'' 
which  "would  greatly  aid  the  students"  and  which 
Christian  Scientists  "universally"  must  buy  a  new 
book  to  read?  It  was  just  two  lines  inserted  in  a  blank 
space  at  the  end  of  a  chapter  and  necessitated  the 
change  of  no  other  plate  of  a  single  page  in  the  book. 

"Christian  Scientists,  be  a  law  to  yourselves,  that 
mental  malpractice  can  harm  you  neither  when  asleep 
nor  when  awake." 

Only  this  and  nothing  more.  It  is  senseless,  and  yet 
it  cost  many  thousands  of  Christian  Scientists  from 
three  to  six  dollars  apiece  to  find  out,  if  they  could 
find  anything  out,  that  the  "revelator"  had  sold  them 
a  "gold  brick."  And  even  since  the  edition  of 
February,  1908,  another  edition,  with  only  one  line 
added,  has  been  foisted  upon  the  faithful. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  these  things?  Here  is  a 
woman  claiming  the  succession  to  Jesus,  claiming  to 
have  received  an  exclusive  revelation  from  Almighty 
God  necessary  to  salvation,  and,  having  organized  a 
church  ostensibly  to  lead  unto  the  Father,  she  re- 
quires, as  a  condition  of  continued  membership  in  the 
church,  that  its  members  shall  ''circulate  and  selV  as 
many  of  her  copyrighted  books,  upon  which  there  is 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  139 

a  profit  of  five  hundred  per  cent,  "as  they  can";  and, 
year  in  and  year  out,  she  palms  off  upon  the  behevers 
new  editions  of  tlie  old  stuff  upon  the  false  pretense  of 
new  material  important  to  their  spiritual  growth. 

Nobody  ever  went  at  a  thing  in  a  more  round- 
about, indirect  fashion,  and  nobody  ever  resorted  to 
trickery  more  shamelessly  than  has  the  Reverend 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.  Nobody  ever  assumed  with 
so  much  boldness  the  complete  asininity  of  the  human 
race,  as  has  this  woman  who  professes  to  be  the  suc- 
cessor to  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  fall  of  1899  suits  were  brought  (as  explained 
in  the  Introduction)  against  Mrs.  Eddy  and  some  of 
her  leading  supporters  for  the  libel  upon  Mrs.  Wood- 
bury, in  which  damages,  approximating  half  a  million 
dollars,  were  asked.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  friends  were 
much  alarmed  and  prepared  for  the  most  strenuous 
defence  that  could  possibly  be  made.  It  was  denied 
that  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  in  any  way  referred  to  in 
the  passage  complained  of;  but  numerous  lawyers 
were  retained  to  contest  her  endeavor  to  show  that 
the  denial  was  false.  Mrs.  Eddy  retained  four  dif- 
ferent firms  of  lawyers  to  represent  her,  three  promi- 
nent Boston  firms  and  the  leading  firm  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  she  then  lived.  She  thus  found  herself 
involved  in  enormous  and  unexpected  expense,  and 
money  became  the  burning  question  of  the  hour. 

Mrs.  Eddy  well  knew,  from  experience,  that  all  she 
had  to  do  to  procure  the  money  necessary,  was  to  ask 
the  faithful  to  give  it  to  her;  but  she,  naturally,  didn't 
care  to  make  an  open  appeal  for  it.     She  resorted,  as 


140  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

I  believe,  to  the  strangest  and  most  audacious  trick 
ever  employed  by  any  human  being  to  get  money  out 
of  honest  and  trusting  people. 

Four  days  before  Christmas,  1899,  when  it  was 
safe  to  assume  that  the  customary  Christmas  offerings 
were  in  the  mail  on  their  way  to  her,  she  published 
in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  the  following: 

"A  Card. 

"Beloved:  I  ask  this  favor  of  all  Christian  Scien- 
tists. Do  not  give  me  on,  before,  or  after  the  forth 
coming  holidays,  aught  material  except  three  tea 
jackets.  All  may  contribute  to  these.  One  learns  to 
value  material  things  only  as  one  needs  them,  and 
the  costliest  things  are  those  that  one  needs  least. 
Among  my  present  needs  material  are  these  three 
jackets.  Two  of  darkish  heavy  silk,  the  shade  ap- 
propriate to  white  hair.  The  third  of  heavy  satin, 
lighter  shade,  but  sufficiently  sombre.  Nos.  1  and  2 
to  be  common  sense  jackets  for  Mother  to  work  in,  and 
not  over  trimmed  by  any  means.  No.  3  for  best,  such 
as  she  can  afford  for  her  drawing  room. 

"Mary  Baker  Eddy." 

When  this  "Card"  was  published  Mrs.  Eddy  must 
have  believed  that  there  were  upwards  of  a  million 
Christian  Scientists,  for  years  before  she  had  said, 
"In  1883  a  million  of  people  acknowledge  and  attest 
the  blessings  of  this  mental  system  of  treating  disease." 
So  she  must  have  expected  approximately  a  million 
people  to  make  some  response  to  her  request. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  "Card"  doesn't  ask  for 
tea  jackets;  it  asks  for  contributions  for  tea  jackets. 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  no  expectation  that  a  million  or  more 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  141 

garments  would  be  received  in  response  to  her  state- 
ment that  she  needed  two  of  heavy  silk,  the  shade 
appropriate  to  white  hair,  and  one  of  heavy  satin 
Hghter  shade  but  sufficiently  sombre.  If  she  had 
wanted  the  tea  jackets  and  not  contributions,  she 
would  have  given  waist  and  bust  measurements,  with 
length  of  sleeve  and  skirt.  No,  there  was  no  room 
for  doubt  that  what  she  wanted  from  all  her  "Be- 
loved" was  contributions  and  not  jackets,  and  as  she 
hadn't  designated  anyone  to  receive  the  contributions, 
all  were  asked  to  make  for  Mother's  benefit,  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  send  the  contributions  straight  to 
Mother.  All  had  contributed  many  times  and  all 
were  given  another  precious  chance  to  show  how 
"easy"  they  were. 

There  was  never  any  publicity  given  to  contribu- 
tions received  for  the  two  common  sense  jackets  for 
Mother  to  work  in,  and  the  more  elaborate  one  such 
as  she  could  afford  for  her  drawing-room;  but  who, 
that  has  any  familiarity  with  the  exceeding  eagerness 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  to  contribute,  can  have  any 
doubt  that  none  would  think  of  sending  her  less  than 
five  dollars. 

How  lovely !  There  were  not  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand Christian  Scientists  at  this  time,  but,  if  each 
chipped  in  five  dollars  toward  Mother's  jackets,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  dropped  into  her 
lap. 

I  am  only  giving  my  interpretation  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
strange  request,  when  I  say  that  cleariy  what  she 
wanted  was  not  tea  jackets,  but  money  to  finance  her 


142  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

very  elaborate  and  expensive  preparations  to  contest 
Mrs.  Woodbury's  suits.  She  wanted  money,  she 
wanted  it  at  once,  and  so  she  asked  for  it  immediately. 
The  request  was  made  for  a  Christmas  present,  and  it 
was  made  four  days  before  Christmas. 

My  understanding  that  what  Mrs.  Eddy  was  after 
was  money  and  not  tea  jackets,  is  confirmed  by  her 
own  subsequent  statement  that  she  didn't  really  want 
the  garments  after  all.  She  gave  her  "Beloved"  a  whole 
week  to  decide  how  much  the  contribution  should  be 
and  to  make  it.  A  minute  was  time  enough,  and  she 
graciously  gave  them  a  whole  week;  and  then  she 
withdrew  the  request  altogether. 

On  December  28,  1899,  a  week  after  the  pubhcation 
of  the  first  "Card,"  Mrs.  Eddy  pubHshed  another, 
which  is  a  perfect  gem  of  characteristic  ambiguity.  It 
follow^s: 

A  Card. 

Beloved:  I  accept  most  gratefully  your  purpose 
to  clothe  me,  and  when  God  has  clothed  you  suffi- 
ciently. He  will  make  it  easy  for  you  to  clothe  one  of 
his  little  ones.  Give  yourselves  no  more  trouble  to 
get  the  three  garments  called  for  by  me  through  last 
week's  Sentinel. 

Mary  Baker  Eddy. 
Pleasant  View,  Concord,  N.H.,  Dec.  25,  1899. 

Mother  had  asked  for  contributions  for  three  tea 
jackets,  and  now  accepts  most  gratefully  the  purpose 
of  her  "Beloved"  to  clothe  her;  and  modestly  puts  it 
by.  When  God  has  clothed  them  sufficiently.  He  will 
make  it  easy  for  them  to  clothe  one  of  His  little  ones. 
There  speaks  the  oracle  for  you  with  true  Delphic 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  143 

vagueness.  "Give  yourself  no  more  trouble  to  get 
the  garments  called  for  by  me  through  last  week's 
Sentinel." 

One  thing,  at  least,  is  plain.  She  hadn't  called  for 
jackets,  but  for  contributions  for  jackets;  and  a  week 
had  been  accorded  her  dear  followers  to  contribute. 

After  everybody  from  whom  a  contribution  could 
be  expected,  had  sent  it  along,  they  are  informed 
that  the  tea  jackets  were  not  wanted  and  that  when 
God  had  sufficienty  clothed  them.  He  would  make 
it  easy  for  them  to  clothe  one  of  His  little  ones. 

Mother  concluded  that  the  common-sense  jackets 
were  not  necessary  to  her  work  and  that  she  could 
sufficiently  grace  her  drawing-room  without  the  help 
of  the  Beloved;  but  it  has  not  appeared  that  any  of 
the  solicited  contributions  were  returned. 

I  cannot  say  what  an  impression  the  loyal  Christian 
Scientists  may  have  received  from  this  performance 
on  the  part  of  their  leader;  but  I  am  very  certain  that 
any  man  of  common  sense,  who  had  sent  money  in 
response  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  card,  when  he  perused 
the  second  would  speedily  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  had  been  buncoed. 

I  cannot  leave  this  subject  without  giving  one 
more  illustration  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  commercial  spirit. 
Those  of  us  who  were  brought  up  in  the  old  school  of 
medical  practice  do  not  forget  the  utility  of  spoons 
in  that  connection;  and  I  vividly  recall  being  made, 
in  the  spring-time,  to  stand  in  hne  with  my  numerous 
brothers  and  sisters  and  to  march  unflinchingly  upon 
a  spoon  overloaded  with  sulphur  and  molasses.     But 


144  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

what  earthly  connection  there  can  be  between  the 
purely  mental  treatment  of  Christian  Science  and 
the  purely  physical  thing,  spoon,  is  not  at  first  glance 
perceptible.  It  is  plain,  however,  that  spoons  were 
a  feature  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  business.  She  was  engaged 
in  the  exploitation  of  revelations  and  spoons,  and, 
pursuant  to  her  successful  method  of  extorting  money, 
made  an  appeal  to  the  credulity  of  her  people,  utilizing 
the  old  gag  of  the  dissemination  of  Truth  to  promote 
even  the  sale  of  spoons.  The  following  is  her  com- 
mand to  the  faithful: 

"Christian  Science  Spoons  —  On  each  of  these 
most  beautiful  spoons  is  a  motto  in  bas-relief  that  every 
person  on  earth  needs  to  hold  in  thought.  Mother 
requests  that  Christian  Scientists  shall  not  ask  to  be 
informed  what  this  motto  is,  but  each  Scientist  shall 
purchase  at  least  one  spoon,  and  those  who  can  afford 
it,  one  dozen  spoons,  that  their  famihes  may  read  this 
motto  at  every  meal  and  their  guests  be  made  par- 
takers of  its  simple  truth. 

"Mary  Baker  G.   Eddy." 

This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  not  an  appeal,  a  request  or 
a  suggestion,  but  a  command.  "Each  Scientist 
shall  purchase  at  least  one  spoon,  and  those  who 
can  afford  it,  one  dozen  spoons."  There  is  a  motto 
on  the  spoon,  of  whose  simple  truth,  with  their 
meals,  it  is  urged  that  the  families  of  the  faithful  may 
be  given  an  opportunity  to  partake,  and  "Mother" 
especially  requests  that  Christian  Scientists  shall  not 
ask  to  be  informed  what  this  motto  is.  To  be 
informed  of  the  motto,  would  enable  her  following 
to  partake  of  its  simple  truth  without  purchasing  one 


IMMEASURABLE    GREED  145 

dozen  spoons  or  even  a  solitary  spoon;  and  the  sale 
of  spoons,  and  not  the  consumption  of  truth,  was 
the  plain  purpose  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  command. 

The  price  of  spoons  was  three  dollars  apiece  for 
the  plain  silver  and  five  dollars  apiece  for  those  with 
gold  plated  bowls;  and  I  know  a  gentleman  in  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  then  a  professed  Christian  Scientist,  who 
parted  with  sixty  good  American  dollars  for  one  dozen 
Christian  Science  spoons. 

Truly,  are  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  the  very 
easiest  ''easy  marks"  that  any  bunco-steerer  ever 
went  up  against! 

How  naturally  we  fall  into  the  slang  of  the  street 
or  into  the  language  in  which  the  operations  of  common 
swindlers  are  characterized,  when  we  discuss  this 
"religion"  and  its  high  priestess! 

Is  there  any  possible  doubt  of  the  basic  motive  of 
this  woman?  Did  any  one  ever  hear  of  anything 
approaching  the  audacity  of  this  brazen  creature? 
Is  it  now  clear,  beyond  possibiHty  of  cavil,  that  all 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  absurd  and  irreverent  pretensions  have 
been  merely  unique  business  methods  utilized  to  the 
utmost  to  give  a  fictitious  value  to  her  foolish  and 
harmful  teachings,  and  to  extend  the  sale  of  her  foolish 
and  harmful  writings? 

Is  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  in  very  truth 
anything  more  than  a  peddler  of  "revelations;"  a 
huxter,  who  makes  a  commodity  of  "religion";  as 
Mark  Twain  says,  a  shameless  old  swindler  who  reaches 
out  her  irreligious  hand  and  grabs  the  sacred  name  of 
Jesus  the  more  easily  to  cheat  and  rob  poor  confiding 


146  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

creatures  while  looking  to  her  for  health  to  their 
aching  bodies  and  peace  to  their  troubled  souls?  Is 
there  a  blasphemy,  a  mendacity,  a  cruelty,  beyond 
that  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy?  Is  there  a  greed 
that  approaches  hers? 


CHAPTER  IX 
The  Eddy  Autocracy. 

MONEY  and  power  are  the  explanations  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  life.  We  have  seen  how  greedily  she 
has  accumulated  wealth.  Let  us,  for  a  moment,  con- 
sider the  way  in  which  she  has  extended  her  power. 

Nearly  twenty  years  ago,  Mrs.  Eddy  estabhshed 
the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  which 
is  called  the  "Mother  Church"  and  stands  in  the  rela- 
tion to  the  other  churches,  as  she  says,  of  the  vine 
to  the  branches.  It  has  been  Mrs.  Eddy's  repeatedly 
expressed  wish  that  all  Christian  Scientists  everywhere 
should  belong  to  the  Mother  Church,  and  Mr.  Hanna, 
then  her  chief  representative  in  the  organization,  ar- 
gued at  length  that  this  expressed  wish  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
was  the  revealed  will  of  God;  and  no  real  Christian 
Scientist  hesitates  to  do  God's  will,  as  revealed 
through  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Of  course,  membership  in  anything  or  connection 
with  anything  in  Christian  Science  costs  money,  and 
every  member,  resident  or  non-resident,  of  the  First 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  is  required  to 
pay  an  annual  tax  of  at  least  one  dollar.  The  present 
total  membership  of  this  church,  resident  and  non- 
resident, in  which  Mrs.  Eddy's  arbitrary  will  is  abso- 
lute law,  is  upwards  of  fifty  thousand,  and  embraces 

147 


148  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

all  of  the  really  devout  and  loyal  Eddyites  everywhere 
in  the  world.  Here  is,  in  itself,  an  income  of  some 
fifty  thousand  dollars  annually  of  the  First  Church 
in  Boston.  If  to  this  be  added  pew  rents,  church 
collections,  the  voluntary  offerings  of  the  faithful 
and  the  profits  on  the  official  periodicals,  the  aggre- 
gate will  doubtless  reach  a  total  of  considerably  over 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 
Can  any  other  church  in  the  country  show  such  reve- 
nues? Truly,  the  Church  of  St.  Bunco,  as  Mr.  Gordon 
Clark  has  happily  named  it,  is  a  paying  institution! 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  head  of  this  church.  She  con- 
stituted and  calls  herself  pastor  emeritus;  but  her 
relation  to  the  organization  is  the  reverse  of  what 
her  title  implies.  Instead  of  being  honorary  merely, 
it  is  most  positive  and  active.  She  has  been  the  final 
authority  on  all  matters  in  the  church,  dictated  all 
its  actions  and  ceremonies  and  formulated  its  rules 
and  by-laws.  By  these  rules  and  by-laws,  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  made,  she  has  conferred  upon  herself  the 
power  to  remove  from  office  any  officer  of  her  church 
in  Boston,  without  cause,  and  to  excommunicate 
forever,  without  assigned  cause,  any  of  the  fifty 
thousand  members.  By  these  rules,  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  made,  she  has  conferred  upon  herself  the  power 
to  remove  the  readers  —  the  first  and  second  readers, 
who  take  the  place  of  ministers  —  of  all  Christian 
Science  churches  in  the  United  States  and  foreign 
nations.  No  member  excommunicated  from  the 
First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  may  hold 
a  membership  in  any  other  Christian  Science  church 


THE    EDDY    AUTOCRACY  149 

anywhere  in  the  world  and  is  cut  off  from  fellowship 
with  the  faithful,  and  cast  into  outer  darkness 
forever. 

By  these  rules  and  by-laws,  which  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
made,  she  has  provided  that  the  president  and  direct- 
ors of  the  church  may  only  be  appointed  subject  to 
her  approval;  that  no  board  of  trustees  of  the  church 
may  ever  be  constituted  except  by  her,  and  that  the 
first  members,  or  governing  body,  of  the  church  may 
be  appointed  only  with  her  approval.  Indeed,  only 
recently,  with  one  stroke  of  her  pen  and  without  a 
word  of  explanation,  she  swept  this  governing  body, 
the  first  or  executive  members,  completely  out  of 
existence.  No  sermons  shall  ever  be  read  in  the 
churches,  no  original  work  of  any  first  reader  or  minis- 
ter is  permitted  (it  would  detract  somewhat  from  Mrs. 
Eddy's  own  writings)  and  the  service  is  limited,  by 
Mrs,  Eddy's  rules,  to  the  Bible  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  pub- 
lished and  copyrighted  and  profit-yielding  works, 
announcements  of  the  name  of  the  author  of  the  latter 
always  being  required  while  pubHcly  read.  Hypno- 
tists, so  called,  must  be  excluded  upon  her  complaint; 
and  the  editors  and  publishers  of  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence Journal  and  the  other  organs  of  the  sect  and  the 
president  of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College 
may  be  only  persons  of  whom  she  expressly  approves. 
Any  teacher  who  dares  to  take  a  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  into  her  class  without  Mrs.  Eddy's  written 
consent  "shall  be"  (not  may  be)  ''shall  be  excom- 
municated from  the  church." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  rule,  conferring  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  the 


150  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

power   to   remove    officers   of   all    Christian    Science 
churches,  is  as  follows: 

"The  pastor  emeritus  of  the  Mother  Church  (Mrs. 
Eddy)  shall  have  the  right,  through  a  letter  addressed 
to  the  individual  and  the  church  of  which  he  is  a 
reader,  to  remove  a  reader  from  this  office  in  any 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  both  in  America  and 
foreign  nations,  or  to  appoint  the  reader  to  fill  any 
office  belonging  to  the  Christian  Scientists  denomi- 
nation." 

This  by-law  is  followed  by  the  further  provision 
that  it  can  neither  be  amended  nor  annulled  except  by 
Mrs.  Eddy's  consent. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  rules  provide  that  membership  of  the 
church  is  only  possible  to  those  familiar  with  Mrs. 
Eddy's  copyrighted,  five  hundred  per  cent  profit 
earning  pubHcations;  that  the  Bible  and  her  book 
shall  be  the  pastor  —  the  impersonal  pastor  —  of  the 
Mother  Church;  that  every  member  of  the  church, 
when  publicly  reading  or  quoting  from  the  books  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  must  first  announce  the  name  of  the  au- 
thor; that  teachers  shall  instruct  their  students  how 
to  defend  themselves  against  mental  malpractice,  the 
witchcraft  of  Christian  Science;  that  a  degree  of  the 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  is  a  necessary 
preliminary  to  the  teaching  of  Christian  Science  (and 
these  degrees  cost  money) ;  that  any  member  of  the 
church,  working  against  what  Mrs.  Eddy  believes 
advantageous  to  the  church  and  the  cause  of  Christian 
Science,  shall,  upon  her  complaint,  be  dropped  forever 
from  membership;  that  a  member  of  the  church  who 


THE    EDDY    AUTOCRACY  151 

shall  use  written  formulas,  or  permit  his  patients  or 
his  students  to  use  them,  shall  be  excommunicated; 
that  any  member  daring  to  give  advice  on  church 
matters,  outside  of  the  meetings,  shall  be  dropped  from 
membership,  and  so  on,  as  Mark  Twain  says,  "more 
ways  to  get  out  than  to  stay  in"  — the  autocrat,  the 
egotist,  and  the  tradesman  in  every  line. 

And  this  woman,  who  has  accumulated  a  fortune 
by  the  methods  stated,  and  imposed  upon  the  credu- 
lity of  many  thousands  of  religious  people  to  build  up 
a  powerful  organization  of  which  she  has  made  her- 
self the  whimsical  and  imperious  autocrat,  is  the 
woman,  forsooth,  whom  the  Creator  of  the  universe 
selected  to  be  the  successor  to  Jesus! 

I  lately  stood  at  the  threshold  of  the  Holy  of 
Holies  of  the  "Mother  Church,"  and  with  a  crowd  of 
worshipers  patiently  waited  for  admittance  to  the 
hallowed  precincts  of  the  "Mother's  Room."  Over 
the  doorway  was  a  sign  informing  us  that  but  four 
persons  at  a  time  would  be  admitted ;  that  they  would 
be  permitted  to  remain  five  minutes  only,  and  would 
please  retire  from  the  "  Mother's  Room"  at  the  ringing 
of  the  bell.  Entering  with  four  of  the  faithful,  I 
looked  with  profane  eyes  upon  the  consecrated  furnish- 
ings. A  show-woman  in  attendance  monotonously 
announced  the  character  of  the  different  appointments. 
Set  in  a  recess  of  the  wall  and  illumined  with  electric 
light  was  an  oil  painting  the  show-woman  seriously 
declared  to  be  a  life-like  and  realistic  picture  of  the 
chair  in^which  the  "Mother"  sat  when  she  composed 
her  "inspired"  work.     It  was  a  picture  of  an  old- 


152  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

fashioned,  country,  haircloth  rocking  chair,  and  an 
exceedingly  commonplace-looking  table  with  a  pile 
of  manuscript,  an  ink-bottle  and  pen  conspicuously 
upon  it.  On  the  floor  were  sheets  of  manuscript. 
"The  mantelpiece  is  of  pure  onyx,"  continued  the  show- 
woman,  "and  the  bee-hive  upon  the  window  sill  is  made 
from  one  solid  stone.  The  rug  is  made  of  a  hundred 
breasts  of  eider-down  ducks,  and  the  toilet  room  you 
see  in  the  comer  is  of  the  latest  design,  with  gold- 
plated  drain  pipes.  The  painted  windows  are  from 
the  Mother's  poem,  'Christ  and  Christmas,'  and  that 
case  contains  complete  copies  of  all  the  Mother's 
books."  The  chairs,  upon  which  the  sacred  person  of 
the  Mother  had  reposed,  were  protected  from  sacri- 
legious touch  by  a  broad  band  of  satin  ribbon.  My 
companions  expressed  their  admiration  in  subdued  and 
reverent  tones,  and  at  the  tinkling  of  the  bell  we  rever- 
ently tiptoed  out  of  the  room  to  admit  another  dele- 
gation of  the  patient  waiters  at  the  door. 

There  are  no  other  proselyters  like  the  Christian 
Scientist;  for  there  is  no  other  "reHgion"  that  is  at 
the  same  time  a  source  of  large  revenue  to  its  pro- 
moters. The  more  money  that  comes  into  the  coffers 
of  the  central  organization  in  Boston,  the  more  liberal 
salaries  may  be  voted  to  the  workers.  The  organiza- 
tion publishes  the  periodicals,  and  there  is  a  corps  of 
salaried  lecturers  constantly  distributed  over  the 
country.  The  Christian  Science  Journal,  a  monthly 
periodical,  and  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  a  weekly 
periodical,  were  for  many  years  the  only  organs  of 
the  cult;  but  lately  a  more  pretentious  effort  has  been 


THE    EDDY    AUTOCRACY  153 

made  and  a  daily  newspaper  has  been  established  in 
Boston,  called  the  Christian  Science  Monitor.  The 
Journal  and  the  Sentinel  reach  practically  all  of  the 
sixty  or  sixty-five  thousand  Christian  Scientists,  and 
large  numbers  of  them  are  regular  subscribers  to  the 
daily  newspaper.  Of  course,  outside  of  Boston  the 
paper  cannot  reach  its  subscribers  in  time  to  be  any- 
thing but  stale  as  a  news  agency.  But  what  of  that! 
To  buy  it  helps  the  cause ;  and  to  help  the  cause  puts 
money  into  the  capacious  pockets  of  the  managers. 
All  over  the  country  copies  of  these  various  publica- 
tions are  distributed  free,  and  in  nearly  every  rail- 
road station  and  waiting  room  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land  copies  of  the  weekly  and 
monthly  periodicals  may  be  found  in  conspicuous 
places.  The  newspaper  has  httle  or  no  paid  circula- 
tion outside  the  ranks  of  the  believers,  but  many, 
many  thousands  of  copies  are  daily  delivered  to  people 
who  pay  nothing  whatever  for  it.  Of  course,  all  of 
this  costs  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  the  money  comes 
out  of  the  pockets  of  the  believers,  and  goes  into  the 
pockets  of  the  exploiters. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  "String"  on  the  "Gifts" 

MR.  FARLOW,  Mr.  Hanna  and  other  paid  agents 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  from  time  to  time  meet  these  vari- 
ous accusations  with  the  response  that,  while  Mrs  .Eddy 
has  made  a  great  deal  of  money,  she  has  given  away 
a  great  deal;  and,  while  she  possesses  the  powers  afore- 
said, she  lives  in  retirement,  at  Concord,  N.H.,  and 
lets  the  organization  run  itself.  Let  us  see  what  there 
is  in  these  defenses. 

Has  Mrs.  Eddy  given  away  many  thousands  of 
dollars?  Mr.  Hanna  quotes  Mrs.  Eddy  as  having  said, 
"I  could  have  been  worth  many  millions  of  money. 
My  college  alone  was  an  annual  income  of  forty  thou- 
sand dollars;  but  I  managed  to  give  away  enough  to 
balance  my  account  with  conscience."  It  may  be 
inferred  from  this  that,  but  for  what  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
given  away,  she  would  today  be  worth  many  millions; 
consequently  that  she  has  given  away  millions.  She 
has  given  away  money,  with  reservations,  but  when- 
ever she  has  so  given  it,  it  has  been  to  enhance  her 
comfort,  to  extend  her  power,  or  to  add  to  her  glory; 
and  again  and  again,  by  herself  and  her  chosen  repre- 
sentatives, by  Mr.  Hanna  and  Mr  Farlow,  have  false 
representations  been  made  of  the  amounts  given  by 
her.     This  is  important.     Let  me   give    a    view    of 

154 


THE    "string"    on    THE    GIFTS  155 

Mrs.  Eddy's  character  as  displayed  in  these  business 
transactions. 

Much  has  been  made  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  gift  of  the 
land  upon  which  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
in  Boston,  stands.  In  her  book  entitled  "Pulpit 
and  Press,"  copyrighted  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  published 
in  1895,  is  the  statement  that  the  cost  of  the  First 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  "is  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  thousand  dollars,  exclusive  of  the 
land,  a  gift  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  which  is  valued  at  some 
forty  thousand  dollars."  Valued  at  some  forty  thou- 
sand dollars!  Mrs.  Eddy,  of  course,  here  intends  to 
convey  an  impression  that  this  gift  of  the  land  was 
a  gift  by  her  of  some  forty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
real  estate.  In  none  of  her  many  pubHshed  references 
to  this  peculiar  transaction  has  Mrs.  Eddy  told  the 
truth,  or  any  material  part  of  the  truth. 

The  land  upon  which  the  church  stands  was  origi- 
nally owned  by  a  society  known  as  The  Church  of 
Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  and  it  was  originally 
mortgaged  for  nine  thousand  dollars  to  Mr.  Nathan 
Matthews.  This  original  society,  by  contributions, 
fairs,  etc.,  raised  enough  money  to  reduce  the  amount 
of  the  mortgage  to  about  five  thousand  dollars,  when, 
according  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  in  her  book  "  Pul- 
pit and  Press,"  "Owing  to  a  heavy  loss,  they  were 
unable  to  pay  the  mortgage;  therefore  I  paid  it,  and 
through  trustees  gave  back  the  land  to  the  church." 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  pay  the  mortgage.  She  did 
not  give  back  the  land  to  the  church.  What  she  did 
was  quite  other  than  what  she  says  she  did.     Through 


156  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

her  agents,  she  took  an  assignment  of  the  mortgage 
for  the  balance  of  five  thousand  dollars  due  upon  it, 
foreclosed  it,  crowded  out  all  of  the  original  contrib- 
utors, members  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
acquired  the  title  herself,  and  gave  it  to  trustees  for 
a  new  organization,  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist, reserving  to  herself  a  right  to  re-enter  and  re- 
possess herself  of  the  land  with  any  church  that 
might  be  constructed  upon  it.  And  this  cost  Mrs. 
Eddy  five  thousand  dollars,  not  forty  thousand,  as 
she  would  have  us  understand,  and  as  Mr.  Farlow 
has  represented;  nor  even  twenty  thousand,  as  the 
more  modest  Hanna  intimates. 

Real-estate  men  in  Boston  would  wonder  how  it 
was  possible  for  Mrs.  Eddy  legally  to  acquire,  for  the 
sum  of  five  thousand  dollars,  by  the  proper  foreclos- 
ure of  a  mortgage,  property  upon  which  Mr.  Nathan 
Matthews  had  been  willing  to  lend  nine  thousand 
dollars.  Indeed,  it  is  remarkable  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
should,  at  an  open  foreclosure  sale,  have  been  able 
to  buy  for  five  thousand  dollars  a  property  hundreds 
of  men  in  the  city  of  Boston  would  have  been  only  too 
glad  to  have  paid,  at  the  time,  upwards  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  for.  Was  this  foreclosure  regular,  or 
was  it  fraudulent,  as  were  so  many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
transactions?  To  one  who  has  delved  into  her  meth- 
ods, as  I  have,  it  would  seem  as  if  everything  that  she 
touched  became  tainted  with  fraud  or  false  pretense; 
and  it  is  simply  incredible  that  here  in  the  city  of  Bos- 
ton, after  due  advertisement,  and  at  a  legal  public 
auction,  a  piece  of  real  estate  could  be  purchased  for 


THE    "string"    on    THE    GIFTS  157 

but  little  more  than  half  the  money  so  sagacious  an 
investor  as  Mr.  Matthews  was  willing  to  lend  upon  it. 
And  what  of  the  owners  of  the  equity  in  this  land, 
who  were  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  friends  and  followers,  and 
whom  she  thus  despoiled?  They  had  contributed 
about  $7,000  and  were  left  nothing,  while  Mrs.  Eddy 
for  $5,000  acquired  all. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  herself,  says,  "the  property  was  trans- 
ferred in  a  circuitous  and  novel  way,  the  wisdom  of 
which  a  few  persons  have  since  scrupled,"  and  that 
her  intent,  while  "spiritually  inalienable,"  was  "ma- 
terially questionable."  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  instruments  employed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  for  the 
executing  of  the  "materially  questionable"  trans- 
action were  two  Boston  lawyers  who  have  since  been 
disbarred. 

Again,  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  Feb- 
ruary, 1898,  is  an  editorial  statement,  evidently  pre- 
pared by  Editor  Hanna  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  direction, 
in  which  an  effort  is  made  to  meet  the  criticism  upon 
Mrs.  Eddy's  mercenary  methods,  he  refers  to  three 
instances  which  he  calls  "evidences  of  a  generosity 
and  self-sacrifice  that  appeal  to  our  deepest  sense  of 
gratitude,  even  while  surpassing  our  comprehension." 

Now,  what  are  these  evidences  of  this  extraordi- 
nary "generosity  and  self-sacrifice"? 

The  first  is  the  gift  of  the  land  to  the  church. 
"Years  ago,"  says  Mr.  Hanna,  "she  donated  a  lot  of 
ground  in  Boston,  on  which  to  erect  the  Mother 
Church,  that  was  then  valued  at  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  and  now  estimated  to  be  worth  more  than 


158  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

double  that  sum."  Mr.  Hanna,  it  should  be  observed, 
does  not  say,  "which  cost  her  five  thousand  dollars," 
but  which  "was  then  valued  at  twenty  thousand  dol- 
dars";  and  he  does  not  say  anything  about  the  re- 
served right  to  re-enter  and  repossess  herself  of  the 
land  and  all  the  buildings  that  might  be  constructed 
upon  it,  which  right  she  secured  for  not  more  than 
$5,000.  If  it  was  "then  valued  at  twenty  thousand 
dollars,"  as  Hanna  says,  or  at  forty  thousand  dollars, 
as  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  says,  how  did  Mrs.  Eddy  get  it 
for  five?  Perhaps  Mr.  Hanna  can  tell.  Mr.  Hanna 
can  tell  many  things,  if  he  will.  He  has  sworn  that  — 
so  help  him  God!  — he  is  completely  ignorant  of  the 
behef  of  the  members  of  the  church  of  which  he  was 
the  first  reader,  or  minister,  regarding  the  founder  of 
the  alleged  religion  he  pretends  to  profess  and  pro- 
fesses to  expound,  so  we  may  not  ask  him  anything 
about  that;  but  he  may  be  able  to  tell  us  how  his 
"generous"  and  "self-denying"  leader  secured  for 
five  thousand  dollars  Boston  real  estate  worth  twenty 
or  forty  thousand.  It  is  a  trick  some  of  our  real-estate 
speculators  would  be  glad  to  learn. 

Another  of  these  evidences  of  a  "generosity  and 
self-sacrifice"  surpassing  Mr.  Hanna's  comprehension 
is  a  conveyance  in  perpetuity  to  the  First  Church  of 
Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  of  the  real  estate  of  the 
Christian  Science  Publishing  Society;  to  wit,  the  lots 
and  buildings  known  as  95  and  97  Falmouth  Street, 
"valued,"  says  Mr.  Hanna,  at  "not  less  than  twenty- 
two  thousand  dollars." 

Again  the  wily  Hanna  gives  us  what  he  calls  the 


THE    "string"    on    THE    GIFTS  159 

value  and  not  the  cost  to  Mrs.  Eddy;  and  again,  like 
a  true  disciple  of  his  cautious  teacher,  he  suppresses 
the  fact  that  the  property  in  question  was  conveyed 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  three  days  before  she  conveyed  it  to  the 
church,  by  the  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society, 
for  the  nominal  sum  of  one  dollar.  Mrs.  Eddy  always 
reserves  very  substantial  rights,  and  here  she  reserved 
to  herself  the  right  to  use  and  occupy  as  much  room, 
conveniently  and  pleasantly  located,  as  she  might  re- 
quire for  her  own  publishing  business.  If,  at  any 
time,  she  shall  require  the  whole  of  the  premises 
for  her  publishing  business,  she  has  the  right,  under 
her  deed,  to  occupy  the  whole,  and  this  right  she  ac- 
quired for  one  dollar,  and  did  not  part  with.  Mr. 
Hanna  is  a  great  stickler  for  values  when  contending 
for  Mrs.  Eddy's  great  generosity.  It  sounds  rather 
better,  and  makes  a  better  showing  for  his  patron, 
to  say  that  her  gift  (to  which  she  reserves,  if  she 
wishes  it,  the  exclusive  use)  is  valued  at  $22,000,  than 
to  state  the  cold  truth  that  it  cost  her  the  sum  of 
one  dollar. 

Another  of  these  evidences  of  unselfishness  on  Mrs. 
Eddy's  part,  too  great  for  Mr.  Hanna's  understanding, 
is  the  transfer  to  the  church  in  perpetuity  of  the 
Christian  Science  Journal,  Quarterly,  and  all  the 
literary  publications  of  the  society,  and  every  right 
and  privilege  whatsoever  connected  therewith,  saving 
only  the  right  to  copyright  the  Journal  in  her  own 
name ;  and  these  properties  the  astute  Hanna  again 
"values"  at  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Again  he  says 
nothing  about  what  they  cost  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  again 


160  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

he  says  nothing  about  the  right  she  reserved  to  herself. 
These  properties,  as  in  the  case  of  the  real  estate, 
were  acquired  three  days  before  she  gave  them  to  the 
church,  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  from  the  Christian  Science 
Publishing  Society,  for  the  large  sum  of  one  dollar, 
and  she  reserved  not  only  the  right  to  coypright  the 
Christian  Science  Journal,  which  was  the  only  value 
the  Journal  possessed,  but  she  reserved  the  right  to 
withdraw  the  Journal  from  the  trust  and  from  the 
church  at  any  time  she  pleased.  In  other  words, 
she  procured  title  to  the  Journal,  with  a  subscription 
list  of  20,000  and  over,  for  $1.00  and  did  not  give  the 
Journal  to  the  church  or  the  society  at  all.  What  she 
did  give  to  the  church,  according  to  the  official  record, 
cost  her  nothing,  and  what  she  acquired  was  a  pros- 
perous periodical  with  a  paying  subscription  list  of 
20,000  or  more. 

These  wonderful  beneficences,  which  fairly  startle 
Mr.  Hanna,  and  which  cost  Mrs.  Eddy  $5,002,  and 
Hanna  says  were  "worth"  $90,000,  left  her  with  a 
right,  under  certain  circumstances,  to  take  absolute 
possession  of  the  land  and  the  church,  which  cost  her 
nothing  and  cost  others  over  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  guaranteed  to  her  pleasant  and  permanent 
business  quarters  without  expense  of  any  kind,  gave 
her  complete  control,  amounting  to  ownership,  of 
the  Christian  Science  Journal,  and  made  her  the  dicta- 
tor and  authoritative  head,  if  she  wishes  to  be,  of  the 
business  end  of  Christian  Science  as  conducted  at 
the  headquarters  of  the  Christian  Science  Publishing 
Society  in  Boston.    This  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  benefit 


THE    "string"    on    THE    GIFTS  161 

from  her  outlay  of  $5,002,  and  yet  the  Honorable  Septi- 
mus J.  Hanna,  with  upturned  eyes,  piously  exclaims: 

"Let  us  endeavor  to  lift  up  our  hearts  in  thank- 
fulness to  God  for  His  goodness  to  us  and  our  cause 
and  to  His  servant,  our  Mother  in  Israel,  for  these 
evidences  of  a  generosity  and  self-sacrifice  that  appeal 
to  our  deepest  sense  of  gratitude,  even  while  surpass- 
ing our  comprehension." 

In  a  pubhshed  statement,  Mr.  Farlow  has  said: 

"As  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  wealth,  I  want  to  say  she  has 
given  away,  during  the  past  five  years, more  than  dou- 
ble the  sum  total  of  the  entire  profits  from  the  sale  of  her 
books  from  their  first  publication  to  the  present  time." 

I  denounce  this  statement  of  Mr.  Alfred  Farlow's 
as  utterly  false,  and  I  defy  him  to  name  the  benefi- 
ciaries of  these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  he 
says  his  employer  has  given  away.  I  challenge  this 
official  prevaricator  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  religio-commercial 
enterprise  to  give  the  public  the  particulars  of  these 
alleged  gifts.  He  cannot  give  them.  They  do  not 
exist,  and  his  falsehood  is  only  one  of  many  fabrica- 
tions boldly  put  forth  to  bolster  the  tottering  struc- 
ture that  has  so  long  afforded  him  and  his  colleagues 
in  fraud  a  comfortable  financial  refuge. 

The  public  will  be  wise  if  it  decline  to  accept, 
without  verification,  any  statement  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
or  Mr.  Hanna  or  Mr.  Farlow  may  make.  Mrs.  Eddy, 
it  would  seem,  cannot  tell  the  truth,  and  Messrs. 
Hanna  and  Farlow,  it  would  seem,  are  paid  to  tell  lies. 

But  the  story  is  only  half  told,  and  what  follows  is 
more  damning  than  what  has  gone  before. 


CHAPTER  XI 
The  Eddy  Ban  on  Marriage 

1HAVE  said  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  influence  as  the 
founder  of  Christian  Science  is  not  confined  to  the 
reHgious  activities  of  her  followers,  but  extends  into 
their  domestic  and  marital  relations  and  even  their 
business  affairs.  One  of  the  harmful  results  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "inspired"  teachings  consists  in  the  es- 
trangement so  frequently  caused  between  husband 
and  wife  where  either  one  or  the  other  of  them  is  a 
Christian  Scientist.  If  both  happen  to  be  fast  in  the 
faith,  the  occasion  for  disharmony  between  them  is 
not  so  great ;  for  then  the  marital  relation  is  suspended 
by  mutual  consent. 

I  cannot  say  that  I  have  found  very  much  sym- 
pathy on  the  part  of  husbands,  even  nominal  Christian 
Science  husbands,  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  views  upon  the 
marriage  relation;  but  I  do  know  of  many  cases  in 
which  they  have  so  influenced  wives  as  to  lead  to  the 
complete  destruction  of  anything  like  real  marriage. 

Mrs.  Eddy  disapproves  of  marriage  altogether. 
"These  words  of  St. Matthew," she  says,  "have  special 
appHcation  to  Christian  Science,  namely,  'It  is  not 
good  to  marry.'" 

In  the  first  place,  St.  Matthew  never  said  anything 
of  the  kind;  and,  in  the  second  place,  if  he  had  said 

162 


^    U^Uh  h  M^  ,Am«^  [ 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         163 

it,  it  would  have  been  only  so  much  to  his  discredit. 
No  sane  and  sincere  person  has  ever  denounced  mar- 
riage ;  and  not  only  did  St.  Matthew  not  disapprove  of 
it,  but,  in  his  Gospel,  Jesus  is  quoted  as  having  said: 
"Fof  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife:  and  they  twain 
shall  be  one  flesh."  And  the  beautiful  affection  of 
Jesus  for  children  is  sufficient  evidence  of  his  high 
approval  of  marriage.  i^ 

Mrs.  Eddy,  having  been  married  three  or '^our/'"'^'^ 
times,  now  emphatically  disapproves  of  marriage, 
and  a  marriage  between  Christian  Scientists  is  de- 
cidedly objectionable.  There  has  never  been  a  marriage 
in  a  Christian  Science  church.  There  is  no  Christian 
Science  marriage  ceremony  and  no  Christian  Science 
official  authorized  to  perform  a  marriage.  The  mar- 
riage relation,  as  such,  is  regarded  as  sensuous  and 
impure,  and  the  marriage  of  an  official  of  the  church 
in  any  part  of  the  country  would  mean  instant  loss  of 
power  and  influence  together  with  his  office  and  its 
emoluments. 

"Is  marriage  nearer  right  than  celibacy?"  asks 
Mrs.  Eddy.  "Human  knowledge  inculcates  that  it 
is,  while  science  indicates  that  it  is  not."  Science  is 
thus  distinguished  from  human  knowledge.  Mrs. 
Eddy'  science  is  a  thing  imparted  to  her  by  Omnis- 
cience, and  Omniscience,  she  says,  indicates  that 
marriage  is  not  nearer  right  than  cehbacy.  It  is  a 
part  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching  and  the  teaching  of  her 
students,  that  a  woman  cannot  be  an  effective  healer, 
if  she  really  love  a  man  and  be  a  true  wife,  and  that 


164  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

a  man  cannot  accomplish  the  best  results  in  healing 
through  Christian  Science  if  he  really  love  a  woman 
and  be  a  true  husband. 

With  this  objection  to  marriage  goes  also  the 
objection  to  children,  so  that  the  birth  of  children 
in  Christian  Science  families  is  of  rare  occurrence  and 
is  regarded  as  evidence  of  unspiritual  living  and  is 
decidedly  discrediting.  "Sensual  and  mortal  beliefs, 
material  suppositions  of  Hfe,"  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  chil- 
dren. 

The  effect  of  this  teaching  is  shown  in  the  dif- 
ference between  Christian  Science  Sunday  Schools  and 
Christian  Sunday  Schools.  The  membership  of  the 
Methodist,  Baptist  and  Presbyterian  Sunday  Schools 
is  about  the  same  as  their  church  membership;  while 
in  Christian  Science  Sunday  Schools  there  is  but  one 
child  for  every  five  church  members. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  objection  to  children  does  not  appear 
to  be  to  children  themselves,  but  simply  to  children 
begotten  and  bom  as  they  have  been  from  the  be- 
ginning of  man's  existence  until  now  and  will  be  until 
the  end.  It  is  a  part  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  inspired  doctrine 
that,  when  Christian  Science  has  made  a  conquest  of 
the  world  and  the  "spiritual  creation  is  discerned," 
there  will  be  no  more  marriage  and  the  human  race 
be  propagated  without  regard  to  sex.  "Until  it  be 
learned,"  she  says,  "that  generation  rests  on  no 
sexual  basis,  let  marriage  continue,"  and  "until  time 
matures  human  growth,  marriage  and  progeny  will 
continue  unprohibited  in  Christian  Science,"  and  "To 
abolish  marriage  at  this  period  and  maintain  morality 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         165 

and  generation,  would  put  ingenuity  to  ludicrous 
shifts,  yet  this  is  possible  in  Science."  Insane  as 
this  teaching  is,  Mrs.  Eddy's  alleged  "intelHgent" 
following  believe  it  to  be  the  teaching  of  Infinite 
Wisdom,  and  as  such  make  it  the  desire  of  their 
Hves. 

Charming  doctrine  this  for  civilized  people  to 
make  the  regulator  of  their  lives!  Oh,  charming! 
But  Mrs.  Eddy  goes  further  and  denounces  marriage 
in  the  roundest  and  almost  unprintable  terms. 

The  most  impressive  and  conspicuous  incident  in 
Christian  Science  history  was  the  dedication  in  June, 
1906,  of  the  "Mother  Church"  in  Boston,  a  beautiful 
building  that  cost  upwards  of  two  million  dollars. 
In  order  to  get  her  views  regarding  marriage  before 
the  faithful,  in  the  most  impressive  manner,  Mrs. 
Eddy  incorporated  them  in  her  message  which  was 
read  at  the  church  dedication  ceremonies.  She  took 
the  bit  in  her  teeth,  as  it  were,  and  notwithstanding 
efforts  to  dissuade  her  or  induce  her  to  modify  her 
statement,  insisted  upon  getting  her  views  before  her 
following  in  their  most  extreme  and  obnoxious  form, 
characterizing  marriage  as  "synonymous  with  legalized 
lust." 

It  has  been  denied  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  press  agents 
that  she  gave  utterance  to  this  opinion  of  marriage; 
but  it  will  be  found  in  her  dedication  message 
as  published  in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  for 
June  16,  1906,  and  the  Chrstian  Science  Journal  for 
July,  1906. 

To  one  not  insane  or  degenerate,  to  all  noble  souls, 


166  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

marriage  is  the  sweetest  and  purest  relationship  imagin- 
able and  fatherhood  and  motherhood  are  nothing  less 
than  divine ;  but  this  three-or-four-times-married  wo- 
man gives  us  to  understand  that,  so  far  as  she  knows 
it,  marriage  is  "legaHzed  lust."  I  should  think  a  so 
much  married  woman  would  deliberate  a  long  time 
before  she  would  give  public  utterance  to  such  a  view 
of  the  marriage  relation.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  dispute 
her  own  experience.  Her  whole  teaching  regarding 
the  institution  shows  that  it  is  impossible  for  her  to 
conceive  of  what  marriage  means  to  a  noble  man 
and  a  noble  woman  who  have  found  unity  in  its  sacred 
bond;  and  when  she  applies  that  vile  epithet  to  so- 
ciety's fundamental  institution,  I  tell  her,  though  she 
pretend  to  voice  God  Himself,  that  she  lies  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  her.  How  is  it  possible  for  a  husband 
who  loves  and  respects  his  wife,  or  a  wife  who  loves 
and  respects  her  husband,  or  parents  who  adore  their 
children,  to  have  anything  but  contempt  for  this 
woman  and  her  odious  teachings  ? 

If  Mrs.  Eddy's  God  were,  in  fact,  the  true  God, 
and  if  Christian  Science  were  a  revelation  from  Him, 
and  if  all  the  miracles  they  pretend  to  have  performed 
had  been  performed,  I  should  still  not  bow  down  to 
their  God  nor  worship  him ;  I  should  not  prostrate  my- 
self at  their  shrines  nor  have  fellowship  with  them, 
so  long  as  the  attempt  is  made  to  place  the  stigma  of 
impurity  upon  the  purest  of  all  pure  things  in  the 
world  to  me,  my  child. 

Yes,  this  is  the  twentieth  century.  No,  we'are  not 
living  in  the  year  500  nor  yet  in  the  year  1000.     The 


THE    EDDY    BAN    ON    MARRIAGE  167 

ideas  and  doctrines,  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Christian  Science  belong  to  the  darkest  period 
of  the  dark  ages,  but  they  are  very  real  and  very  potent 
things  in  the  lives  of  many  thousands  of  people  upon 
whom  the  light  of  the  world's  highest  civilization 
shines. 


CHAPTER  XII 
Christian  Science  Witchcraft 

LET  us  now  pass  to  consideration  of  another  phase 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  influence,  more  astounding,  per- 
haps,than  any  we  have  considered,  and  more  discredit- 
able, if  possible,  to  the  age  in  which  we  live.  I  refer  to 
the  belief  in  what  I  have  called  the  new-old  witchcraft; 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  belief,  taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as 
inspired  truth,  and  accepted  by  her  followers  as  re- 
vealed of  God,  that  a  maliciously  disposed  person  has 
the  power,  by  absent  treatment,  through  his  or  her 
mind  to  cause  any  form  of  sickness,  the  most  horrible 
of  deaths,  and  complete  domestic,  social  or  business 
disaster  to  others.  I  shall  quote  somewhat  liberally 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  statements  in  this  regard,  in 
order  that  there  may  be  no  question  that  I  represent 
her  correctly,  and  of  these  statements  I  invite 
thoughtful  consideration. 

In  her  first  edition  of  "Science  and  Health,"  pub- 
lished in  1875,  Mrs.  Eddy  said,  on  page  123: 

"In  coming  years  the  person  or  mind  that  hates 
his  neighbor  will  have  no  need  to  traverse  his  fields, 
to  destroy  his  flocks  and  herds,  and  spoil  his  vines; 
or  to  enter  his  house  to  demorahze  his  household;  for 
the  evil  mind  will  do  this  through  mesmerism;  and 
not  in  propria  personcB  be  seen  committing  the  deed. 
Unless  this  terrible  hour  be  met  and  restrained  by 

168 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    WITCHCRAFT  169 

science,  mesmerism,  that  scourge  of  man,  will  leave 
nothing  sacred  when  mind  begins  to  act  under  direc- 
tion of  conscious  power." 

On  page  382,  Mrs.  Eddy  says: 

"The  silent  argument  used  in  his  own  behalf,  as 
he  manipulates  the  head,  the  malpractitioner  would 
blush  to  make  audibly.  Suppose  he  has  a  juror  for  a 
patient,  and  establishes  the  mesmeric  connection  be- 
tween them,  he  can  influence  more  than  law  or  evi- 
dence, the  verdict  of  that  honest  juror." 

(Possibly  this  accounts  for  the  presence  in  the 
court-room,  at  the  trial  of  a  case  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  defendant,  of  a  large  number  of  the  most  potent 
Christian  Science  hypnotists.) 

On  page  177  of  the  13th  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health,"  Vol.  II,  Mrs.  Eddy  says: 

"Mesmerism  is  practiced  both  with  and  without 
manipulation;  but  the  evil  deed  without  a  sign  is 
also  done  by  the  manipulator  and  mental  malprac- 
titioner. 

"The  secret  mental  assassin  stalks  abroad,  and 
needs  to  be  branded  to  be  known  in  what  he  is  doing." 

On  page  175,  Mrs.  Eddy  says: 

"If  the  right  mental  practice  can  restore  health, 
as  is  proven  beyond  a  question,  it  is  self-evident  that 
a  mental  malpractice  can  impair  the  health  of  those 
ignorant  of  the  cause  and  how  to  treat  it." 

On  page  179,  Mrs.  Eddy  says: 

"The  evidence  of  the  power  that  Mind  exercises 
over  the  body  has  accumulated  in  weight  and  clear- 


170  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL   MASQUERADE 

ness  until  it  culminates,  at  this  period,  in  scientific 
statement  and  proof.  Our  courts  recognize  the  evi- 
dence that  goes  to  prove  the  committal  of  a  crime; 
then,  if  it  be  clear  that  the  so-called  mind  of  one  mortal 
has  killed  another,  is  not  this  mind  proved  a  murderer, 
and  shall  not  the  man  be  sentenced  whose  mind,  with 
maHce  aforethought,  kills?  His  hands,  without  mor- 
tal mind  to  aid  them,  could  not  murder;  but  it  is 
proven  that  this  mind,  without  the  aid  of  his  hands, 
has  killed." 

In  "Science  and  Health,"  thirty -sixth  edition, 
pubHshed  in  1888,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  on  page  220: 

"It  is  hoped  that  eventually  our  laws  will  take 
cognizance  of  mental  crime." 

On  page  515,  she  says: 

"This  mahcious  animal-power  (of  which  the  Dra- 
gon is  the  type)  seeks  to  kill  his  fellow-mortals,  mor- 
ally and  physically,  and  then  to  charge  the  innocent 
with  his  crimes." 

On  page  516,  she  says: 

"The  highest  degree  of  human  depravity,  which 
is  to  be  found  in  this  propulsive  will  power,  or  Animal 
Magnetism." 

In  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  pubHshed  in  1897, 
on  page  222,  Mrs.  Eddy  says: 

"The  crimes  committed  under  this  new  regime  of 
mind-power,  when  brought  to  light,  will  make  stout 
hearts  quail.  Its  mystery  protects  it  now,  for  it  is  not 
yet  known." 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    WITCHCRAFT  171 

In  a  long  article  entitled  "Malicious  Animal  Mag- 
netism," written  by  Mrs.  Eddy  and  published  as  hers 
in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  February,  1889, 
when  the  Journal  was  her  property,  she  lays  down  her 
inspired  teaching  on  that  subject  with  unwonted 
clearness.     She  says: 

"  One  of  the  greatest  crimes  practiced  in,  or  known 
to,  the  ages  is  mental  assassination.  A  mind  liberated 
from  the  beliefs  of  sense,  to  do  good,  by  perverting 
its  power  becomes  warped  into  the  lines  of  evil  without 
let  or  hindrance.  A  mind  taught  its  power  to  touch 
other  minds  by  the  transference  of  thought,  for  the 
ends  of  .restoration  from  sickness,  or,  grandest  of  all, 
the  reformation  and  almost  transformation  into  the 
hving  image  and  hkeness  of  God  —  this  mind,  by 
misusing  its  freedom,  reaches  the  degree  of  total 
moral  depravity. 

"Does  the  community  know  this  criminal?  He 
sits  at  the  friendly  board  and  fireside ;  he  goes  to  their 
places  of  worship ;  he  takes  his  victim  by  the  hand,  and 
all  the  time  claims  the  power  and  carries  the  will 
to  stab  to  the  heart,  to  take  character  and  life 
from  this  friend  who  gives  him  his  hand  in  full 
trust,  and  has,  perhaps,  toiled  and  suffered  to  ben- 
efit and  bless   him. . . . 

"It  is  no  longer  possible  to  keep  still  concerning 
these  things  —  nay,  it  is  criminal  to  hold  silence  and 
to  cover  crime  that  grows  bolder  and  picks  off  its  vic- 
tims as  sharpshooters  pick  off  the  officers  of  an  at- 
tacking force. 

"These  secret,  heaven-defying  enormities  must  be 
proclaimed,  or  we  become  guilty  before  God  as  acces- 
sory after  the  fact.  If  a  friend  were  fallen  upon  and 
maltreated  or  murdered  before  our  eyes,  should  we 
hold  ourselves  guiltless,   should  we  count  ourselves 


172  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

men  and  women,  if  we  buried  the  secret  of  the  vio- 
lence and  our  knowledge  of  the  assassins? 

"Are  we  such  cowards,  knowing  the  facts  that  we 
do  know,  as  to  turn  and  run?  Shall  we  see  the  evil, 
the  deadly  danger  that  threatens  our  brother,  and,  to 
hide  ourselves,  flee  away  not  warning  him? 

"The  Science  of  mind  uncovers  to  Scientists 
secret  sin,  even  more  distinctly  than  so-called  physical 
crimes  are  visible  to  the  personal  senses;  crime  is 
always  veiled  in  obscurity,  but  Science  fastens  guilt 
upon  its  author  through  mind,  with  the  certainty  and 
directness  of  the  eye  of  God  Himself. 

"Human  laws  will  eventually  be  framed  for  these 
criminals  that  now  go  unwhipped  of  human  justice. 
Human  law  even  now  recognizes  crime  as  mental, 
for  it  seeks  always  the  motive.  Rude  counterfeit 
as  it  is  of  Divine  Justice,  it  metes  out  punishment  or 
pardons  according  as  it  finds,  or  finds  not,  the  evil 
intent,  the  mental  element.  The  time  has  come  for 
instructing  human  justice  so  that  these  secret  criminals 
shall  tremble  before  the  omnipotent  finger  that  points 
them  out  to  the  human  executioner.'' 

If  that  isn't  witchcraft,  I  don't  know  what  witch- 
craft is.  The  Omnipotent  finger  will  point  out  these 
criminals,  who  operate  through  silent  and  invisible 
mental  influences,  and  justice  will  be  meted  out  to 
them  by  the  human  executioner! 

In  a  personal  letter  to  a  student  Mrs.  Eddy  said: 

"The  mental  malpractitioners  or  mesmerists  em- 
ploy the  argument  of  poison  to  kill  people.  They 
cause  you  or  your  patients  to  suffer  from  arsenical 
poison  in  the  blood  or  stomach,  mercurial  poison, 
morphine  or  any  other  form  of  mineral,  vegetable  or 
animal  poison  which  they  may  name  in  their  ar- 
guments." 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    WITCHCRAFT  173 

In  the  latest  editions  of  her  book,  and  in  formal 
communications  to  her  followers,  Mrs.  Eddy  reaffirms 
her  belief  in  this  malicious  power  of  mind,  and  again 
warns  her  followers  against  it.  Her  personal  teaching 
to  her  students  was  even  more  extravagant  than  the 
language  of  her  published  works,  and  it  was  a  com- 
mon occurrence  for  her  to  frighten  young  girls  and 
children  nearly  into  fits  with  the  dreadful  fear  that  a 
malicious  mind  was  seeking  to  cause  them  unspeak- 
able disaster.  She  has  taught  that  the  malicious 
action  of  mind  alone  might,  of  itself,  cause,  and  had 
caused,  the  pregnancy  of  woman,  with  consequences 
I  must  leave  to  your  imagination.  And  all  this 
damnable  doctrine  is  accepted  and  believed  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "intelhgent"  followers  as  the  truth  revealed 
by  God  through  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  —  be- 
lieved with  a  belief  that  trembles. 

I  have  talked  with  a  gentleman  who,  years  ago, 
with  his  family,  lived  for  some  six  months  in  the  house 
with  Mrs.  Eddy ;  and  he  said  to  me  with  great  earnest- 
ness: "I  lived  there  six  months,  and  I  tell  you,  sir, 
I  would  rather  spend  ten  years  in  hell  than  another 
six  months  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  company.  She  nearly 
drove  my  children  into  frenzy  with  her  malicious 
animal  magnetism  business."  Malicious  animal  mag- 
netism is  the  name  by  which  Mrs.  Eddy  now  calls 
her  witchcraft. 

It  has  been  also  a  regular  part  of  the  teachings  of 
that  bogus  institution,  the  Massachusetts  Metaphys- 
ical College,  of  which  Mrs.  Eddy  was  president,  that 
malicious  minds  may,  and  today  are,  causing  sickness. 


174  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

death  and  disaster  to  Christian  Scientists  and  their 
families.  I  know  it  to  be  a  fact  that  the  lecturer  there 
literally  taught  that  Mrs.  Josephine  C.  Woodbury, 
whom  he  named,  possessed  this  power,  and  used  it  to 
the  detriment  of  Christian  Scientists  and  the  cause; 
and  to  such  an  extent  has  this  teaching  regarding 
this  particular  lady  spread  that  I  think  it  would  be 
hard  to  find  a  Christian  Scientist  in  the  United  States 
who  did  not,  or  had  not,  believed  Mrs.  Woodbury 
had  possessed  and  had  exercised  this  power. 

A  Christian  Scientist  healer,  guilty  of  an  unpardon- 
able impropriety  with  young  lady  patients,  is  called 
to  account  by  their  father,  and,  acknowledging  his 
offence,  says  that  he  can  only  account  for  it  on  the 
ground  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  made  him  do  it,  by  ma- 
licious animal  magnetism.  An  aged  lady,  a  Christian 
Scientist  in  a  distant  city,  having  fallen  unaccountable 
several  times  upon  the  street,  explains  to  her  daughter 
that  the  cause  of  it  is  "that  vile  Mrs.  Woodbury  of 
Boston."  The  child  of  a  member  of  the  First  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  dies,  and  the  grief-stricken  mother 
entertains  the  firm  conviction  that  Mrs.  Woodbury 
killed  it.  The  husband  of  a  member  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
church  has  been  sick  for  years  here  in  Boston,  and  for 
years,  without  having  known  or  seen  Mrs.  Woodbury, 
such  has  been  the  teaching  at  the  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist,  in  Boston  and  of  the  alleged  "College,"  that 
she  has  had  no  doubt  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  caused  her 
husband's  illness,  and  she  has  continually  sought  to 
protect  her  husband  by  a  mental  effort  to  throw  the 
illness  back  upon   Mrs.  Woodbury.     Meantime   Mrs. 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    WITCHCRAFT  175 

Woodbury  is,  of  course,  utterly  unconscious  of  all  of 
these  happenings  and  entirely  innocent  of  any  such 
criminal  purposes  and  deeds. 

And  all  this  deviltry  as  revealed  by  God!  All 
this  medieval  witchcraft  in  the  name  of  Christ! 
Out  upon  it!  I  say.  Let  it  no  longer  be  tolerated 
amongst  us! 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  some  nineteen  or  twenty 
estimable  people  in  the  town  of  Salem  in  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts,  because  of  the  finding  of  a 
Court  that  they  were  witches,  were  legally  hanged  by 
the  neck  until  they  were  dead.  And  should  the  in- 
spired and  infallible  founder  of  Christian  Science  pre- 
vail in  her  benevolent  intention  of  * '  instructing  human 
justice  so  that  these  secret  criminals  shall  tremble  be- 
fore the  omnipotent  finger  that  points  them  out  to 
the  human  executioner,"  the  supposed  offences  of 
malicious  animal  magnetism,  the  invention  of  her 
disordered  imagination,  would  be  atoned  upon  the 
gibbet  or  at  the  stake. 

In  her  published  work  Mrs.  Eddy  has  expressly 
justified  the  employment  of  this  alleged  power  for 
retahation  or  defense.     She  says: 

"  It  was  years  after  we  were  personally  attacked  by 
mental  malpractice  before  we  defended  ourselves  or 
taught  our  students  self  defence.  Until  this  attack 
was  aimed  at  our  life,  we  never  resisted  or  even  in- 
vestigated it  thoroughly  and  so  discovered  the  full 
purpose  and  extent  of  a  mental  malpractice.  But 
we  gave  our  attention  to  it  and  found  how  to  save  the 
scattering  remnants  of  our  Christian  students  that 
had  been  mown   down  like  grass.     We  resolved  in 


176  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

the  strength  of  God  to  save  them  and  others  from 
the  hands  of  these  murderers  and  to  find,  as  sure  de- 
fence, the  ever  present  help.  Since  God  has  shown 
us  our  way  in  Christian  healing,  our  mind  often  heals 
involuntarily.  The  malpractitioners  know  this  and 
often  have  asked  tis  about  their  patients  to  direct 
our  thoughts  to  them,  knowing  the  benefit  therefrom. 
They  know,  as  w^ell  as  we,  that  it  is  impossible  for 
science  to  produce  sickness,  but  science  makes  sin 
punish  itself.  They  should  have  feared  for  their  own 
lives  in  their  attempts  to  kill  us.  God  is  Supreme  and 
the  penalties  of  their  sins  they  cannot  escape.  Turn- 
ing the  attention  of  the  sick  to  us  for  the  benefit  they 
may  receive  from  us,  is  another  milder  form  or  species 
of  malpractice  that  is  not  safe;  for  if  we  feel  their 
sufferings,  not  knowing  the  individual,  we  shall  de- 
fend ourselves  and  the  /'esitit  is  dangerotts  to  the  in- 
truder." 

The  retaliatory  method  of  mental  treatment  de- 
vised by  Mrs.  Eddy  consisted  in  an  endeavor  mentally 
to  hurl  cancer  back  upon  the  person  she  believed  to 
be  attempting  to  afflict  her  with  cancer,  or  tumor  upon 
the  person  attempting  mentally  to  transmit  tumor  to 
her,  or  consumption  upon  the  evil  one  thinking 
consumption  at  her,  and  the  various  forms  of  chemical 
poison  upon  those  endeavoring  to  think  mercurial, 
arsenical  or  other  forms  of  poison  into  her  organism. 
She  told  her  students  that  she  had  the  power  of  dis- 
cerning such  malicious  mental  activity  on  the  part 
of  those  she  believed  to  be  her  enemies,  and  that  the 
way  to  protect  her  was  to  hurl  the  malicious  thoughts 
backward  and  cause  them,  as  it  were,  to  recoil  upon 
and  destroy  their  authors. 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    WITCHCRAFT  177 

When  Mrs.  Augusta  Stetson  of  New  York  was 
accused  of  attempts  at  mental  murder,  she  justified 
or  tried  to  justify  such  endeavors  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  defensive  and,  as  such,  taught  and  sanc- 
tioned by  Mrs.  Eddy.  Whatever  Mrs.  Stetson  and 
other  Christian  Scientists  know  about  the  power  to 
commit  murder  by  mental  means,  they  have  learned 
from  Mrs.  Eddy;  and  if  it  be  an  offence  against  the 
Christian  Science  Church,  as  was  decided  in  the  case 
of  Mrs.  Stetson,  to  attempt  to  cause  disease  and  to 
kill  through  the  employment  of  mental  powers,  then 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself  should  follow  Mrs.  Stetson  into 
exile  from  the  communion  of  the  saints. 

Mrs.  Stetson's  excommunication  is  an  interesting 
sequel  to  an  incident  that  occurred  in  Concord,  N.H., 
in  April  of  1907.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  then  living  at 
Concord,  and  the  litigation  by  the  sons  had  been  com- 
menced in  the  preceding  month.  It  had  been  the 
talk  of  the  newspapers,  from  time  to  time,  that  Mrs. 
Stetson  was  nourishing  an  ambition  to  succeed  Mrs. 
Eddy  in  the  leadership  of  Christian  Science  upon 
Mrs.  Eddy's  demise,  and  it  had  even  been  said  that, 
expecting  Mrs.  Eddy's  death  to  occur  at  a  particular 
time,  Mrs.  Stetson  had  come  to  Boston  prepared  with 
a  most  magnificent  costume  for  attendance  upon  Mrs. 
Eddy's  ascension. 

It  was  pretty  generally  known  in  Christian  Science 
circles  that  Mrs.  Stetson  was  maneuvering  to  succeed 
Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  official  head  of  the  movement,  and 
doubtless  the  report  reached  Mrs.  Eddy's  ears.  At 
this  time  one  Herman  S.  Herring  was  the  first  reader 


178  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

of  Mrs.  Eddy's  church  at  Concord  and  H.  Cornell 
Wilson  was  acting  as  one  of  her  secretaries  at  her 
home  at  Pleasant  View.  By  some  means,  through  the 
New  York  World,  possession  was  obtained  of  a  letter 
written  by  Herring  to  Wilson,  dated  April  27,  1907, 
in  which  he  asked  Mr.  Wilson  if  "it  would  not  be 
well  to  protect  Mrs.  Eddy  from  the  Stetson  argu- 
ment specifically,  or  are  the  workers  doing  so?" 

The  meaning  of  this,  of  course,  is  that  Herring 
assumed  Mrs.  Stetson  was,  by  malicious  mental  en- 
deavor, operating  adversely  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  either  to 
cause  Mrs.  Eddy  to  designate  Mrs.  Stetson  as  her  suc- 
cessor, or  to  hasten  Mrs.  Eddy's  departure,  by  ascen- 
sion or  otherwise, from  the  world;  and  the  **  workers" 
referred  to  are  the  corps  of  Christian  Science  mental 
practitioners  always  maintained  by  Mrs.  Eddy  at  her 
home  by  concentrated  mental  effort  to  erect  and 
maintain  a  mental  bulwark  around  her  that  shall  be 
impenetrable  by  Mrs.  Stetson's  or  any  other  mali- 
cious mental  bullets. 

"It  has  troubled  me,"  said  Herring,  "but  helped 
me,  to  hear  that  Frye  was  a  channel  for  that  diabo- 
lism." 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  always  contended  that  she 
herself  was  so  immaculate  that  malicious  animal 
magnetism  could  not  immediately  approach  her;  but 
injury  to  her  might  be  effected  through  some  less  pure 
personality  close  to  her.  As  no  one  was  closer  than 
Frye, it  appears  that  he  was  believed  to  be  the  medium 
through  which  Mrs.  Stetson  was  supposed  to  be 
operating,  or  attempting  to  operate,  against  Mrs.  Eddy. 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         179 

The  newspaper  reports  of  the  Stetson  trial  and 
excommunication  did  not,  so  far  as  they  came  to  my 
attention,  contain  any  intimation  that  judgment  had 
fallen  upon  Mrs.  Stetson  because  of  her  mental  attacks 
upon  Mrs.  Eddy ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  believes  she  had  been  the  target  of  such  attacks, 
and  that  the  excommunication  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  own 
act  of  retaliation  upon  Mrs.  Stetson. 

"The  highest  degree  of  human  depravity,"  Mrs. 
Eddy  calls  this  alleged  power  to  cause  sickness  and  to 
cause  death,  which,  when  successfully  employed, 
should  be  expiated  upon  the  scaffold;  and,  deliberately 
and  solemnly,  with  full  understanding  of  the  meaning 
of  my  language,  I  affirm  and  I  charge  that  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  and 
the  pretended  successor  to,  and  equal  of,  Jesus,  has 
again  and  again  and  again  sought  to  exercise  it;  that 
she,  herself,  has  repeatedly  thus  sought  to  cause  sick- 
ness, sought  to  cause  death,  and  this,  as  everything 
else  I  have  alleged,  I  will  prove  by  legal  evidence  when- 
ever Mrs.  Eddy  may  be  pleased  to  require  it. 

To  bring  out  clearly  the  effect  upon  Mrs.  Eddy's 
daily  life  of  her  genuine  belief  in  this  diaboHcal  thing 
she  calls  malicious  animal  magnetism,  and  her  efforts 
to  avail  herself  of  the  supposed  power  of  mind  to  cause 
disease  and  death,  the  following  letter,  received  from 
a  gentleman,  now  a  practising  physician,  who  in  his 
earlier  manhood  was  attracted  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
teachings,  is  incorporated  here: 

"I  hved  in  the  'College'  with  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
family  for  nearly  a  year,  and  had  ample  opportunity 


180  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

to  observe  all  the  things  I  now  tell  you;  I  shall  not 
make  a  statement  without  knowing  that  it  is  ab- 
solutely true. 

**As  you  desire  information  in  regard  to  her  teach- 
ings of  malicious  animal  magnetism,  I  will  confine 
myself  mostly  to  that  subject. 

* 'Nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time  of  her  class  lectures 
was  taken  up  with  teaching  us  how  to  'meet  the 
enemy,'  as  she  called  Richard  Kennedy,  Edward 
Arnes,  Clara  Choate,  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Childs. 
We  were  taught  that  Richard  Kennedy,  especially, 
was  the  'Arch  Enemy '  of  Christian  Science,  and  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself;  that  he  had  learned  the  art  of  using 
'malicious  animal  magnetism'  on  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
students ;  that  he  had  '  secret  service '  men  and  women 
who  watched  every  movement  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  of 
each  one  living  with  her;  that  we  could  not  go  out 
without  some  one  following,  and  watching  us,  report- 
ing to  'the  ring  of  enemies,'  namely,  Kennedy, 
Arnes,  Choate  and  Childs.  We  were  taught  that  by 
being  aware  of  all  our  movements  —  just  how  we 
looked,  and  who  our  patients  were  —  they  had  the 
mental  power  to  so  mesmerize  our  minds  as  to  cause 
us  to  meet  with  defeat  in  all  our  attempts  to  heal; 
that  they  were  infonned  of  the  diseases  and  weak- 
nesses from  which  we  had  been  healed,  and  by  ma- 
licious thoughts  and  concentration  upon  us  could 
cause  us  to  relapse  into  our  old  forms  of  disease. 

"Mrs.  Eddy  was  constantly  having  attacks  of  ill- 
ness (always  in  the  night).  We  were  often  called  up 
about  eleven  o'clock  at  night  to  treat  her,  and  were 
obliged  to  remain  up  until  about  two  o'clock  a.m. 
These  attacks,  we  were  told,  were  brought  on  by  the 
'enemy,'  working  through  us,  as  her  students.  She 
claimed  that  the  only  way  the  'enemy'  could  reach 
herj^was  through  her  students,  she  being  so  strong  and 
so^pure  that  their  'malicious  animal  magnetism'  could 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         181 

not  reach  her  in  any  other  way.  So  we  used  to  go 
into  the  parlor,  after  breakfast  and  supper,  each  day, 
and  mentally  'take  up  the  enemy.'  We  were  taught 
to  recognize  the  error,  and  treat  ourselves  and  the 
'enemy,'  so  that  they  ('the  enemy')  could  have  no 
power  over  us,  or  our  patients;  and  every  time  we 
gave  the  treatments  we  were  taught  to  first  'treat 
the  enemy.' 

"The  result  of  all  this  was,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
always  full  of  fear;  as  the  'enemy'  were  supposed  to 
have  power  to  prevent  all  kinds  of  desired  results, 
not  only  in  healing,  but  in  business,  as  well. 

"I  was  taught  that  the  postal  clerks  were  so  mes- 
merized that  letters  to  and  from  the  College  would 
never  reach  their  destination  unless  certain  conditions 
were  complied  with ;  also  that  the  telegraph  operators 
were  so  under  this  maliciovis  influence  that  a  message 
sent  by  telegraph  would  not  reach  the  person  to 
whom  it  w^as  sent  unless  certain  precautions  were 
taken.  I  was  once  sent  from  her  house  to  West 
Newton  to  forward  a  telegraph  message  to  Chicago, 
so  that  it  would  be  sent  by  way  of  Worcester,  instead 
of  Boston,  as  all  Boston  operators  were  supposed  to  be 
so  mesmerized  by  the  'enemy'  that  no  message  from 
Mrs.  Eddy  could  reach  its  destination,  if  sent  throtigh 
their  hands.  And  so  I  might  run  on  for  hours,  giving 
you  facts  about  such  things. 

"I  was  told  to  treat  the  'enemy  '  (Kennedy,  Arnes, 
Choate  and  Childs)  to  cause  their  'old  beliefs'  to  re- 
turn, 'and  prostrate  them  at  onceF  '  Old  behefs'  meant 
former  diseases,  from  which  they  had  been  healed,  in 
some  cases  even  tumors  and  cancers. 

"I  could  write  pages  of  things  said  and  done,  to 
show  that  insane  idea  of  the  power  of  malicious  men 
and  women  to  nearly,  if  not  quite,  kill  people.  We 
were  taught  that  they  had  killed  several  students  of 
Mrs.  Eddy.     I  was  taught  that  Kennedy  and  Arnes 


182  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

knew  how  to  treat  people  in  a  way  to  cause  'sixty 
symptons  of  arsenic  poisoning.' 

"I  was  often  called  in  the  night  to  treat  Mrs.  Eddy, 
as  she  was  sick.  I  have  been  sent  to  the  homes  of 
other  students  to  call  them  in  the  night  to  help  her 
out  of  her  fears  and  spasms. 

"I  was  sent  in  the  month  of  May,  1884,  at  two 
o'clock  A.M.,  to  call  lawyer  Roberts  to  make  her  will, 
as  it  seemed  she  could  not  live  till  morning  —  all 
caused  by  'malicious  animal  magnetism, '  or  'M.A.M. ' 
as  we  were  in  the  habit  of  abbreviating  it. 

"I  found  Mrs.  Eddy  a  strong-willed,  obstinate,  and 
arbitrary  woman.  Her  business  was  obHged  to  be 
conducted  as  she  dictated,  whether  right  or  wrong. 

"I  was  one  of  four  students  told  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to 
treat  certain  clergymen  of  Boston  to  come  into  her 
classes  and  endorse  Christian  Science. 

"The  following  incident  might  be  of  interest  at 
this  time: 

"In  the  summer  of  1884,  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  her  first 
class  in  Chicago.  For  several  weeks  before  going  there 
she  was  constantly  in  a  state  of  worry,  or  fear,  that 
Mrs.  Choate  would  *  prostrate  her, '  and  so  prevent  her 
from  going  there,  as  she  thought  that  Mrs.  Choate 
herself  wished  to  go  and  teach  a  class.  Calvin  A. 
Frye  had  purchased  Mrs.  Eddy's  ticket,  and  engaged 
a  private  compartment  for  her,  and  a  berth  for  him- 
self (to  accompany  her  to  Chicago),  when,  the  night 
before  she  was  to  start,  she  was  taken  very  ill  (the 
work  of  Mrs.  Choate,  she  believed  it  to  be)  and  was 
not  able  to  go  the  next  day,  as  she  had  intended  to  do. 
She  called  in  her  students,  at  the  College  with  her,  to 
treat  against  Mrs.  Choate,  to  prevent  her  mesmerism 
from  prostrating  her  (Mrs.  Eddy),  and  by  the  second 
day  she  was  able  to  go  to  Chicago.  We  afterwards 
learned  that  at  the  same  identical  time,  Mrs.  Choate 
was  ill,   and  thought  that  Mrs.   Eddy  was  sending 


THE    EDDY    BAN    ON    MARRIAGE  183 

'malicious  animal  magnetism'  to  prostrate  her,  and 
called  in  a  former  student  of  the  college  to  treat 
against  Mrs.  Eddy's  mesmerism. 

"So  you  see  how  fear  controlled  Mrs.  Eddy 
(even  at 'that  distant  day)  and  every  one  connected 
with  her,  and  has  continued  to  control  every  one 
taught  by  her,  who  has  not  escaped  from  the  bondage 
of  that  teaching. 

'This  is  only  a  fragment  of  what  I  might  tell  you 
in  regard  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  teachings  at  the  time 
I  was  with  her;  but  it  is  enough  to  show  you  what  she 
taught  and  practised  then,  as  well  as  now. 

Could  anything  be  more  insane  than  the  condition 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  household  as  indicated  in  this  letter? 
Or  could  anything  be  more  diaboHcal  than  her  at- 
tempt, to  which  this  gentleman  and  others  are  willing 
to  make  oath  whenever  they  are  called  upon,  by 
concerted  mental  operations  to  afflict  her  enemies 
with  tumor  and  cancer? 

But  to  be  somewhat  more  specific.  Some  years 
ago  Mrs.  Eddy  regarded  Mr.  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  who 
had  been  one  of  her  students  and  friends,  as  an  enemy, 
and  it  was  her  determined  and  expressed  purpose 
that  he  should  in  some  manner  be  disposed  of.  The 
cause  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  violent  antipathy  to  Spofford 
is  not  quite  clear,  except  perhaps  upon  the  theory 
that  all  of  her  antipathies  have  been  violent.  It  may 
be  in  some  measure  due  to  his  unwillingness  to  pay 
her  money  he  did  not  believe  was  due  her,  and  to  the 
failure  of  various  litigations  brought  against  him  by 
her.  Mrs.  Eddy  brought  suit  against  Spofford  upon 
one   of   her  early   contracts  for  $100  for  teachings, 


184  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

ten  per  cent  royalty  on  income,  and  $1,000  for  omission 
to  utilize  the  teachings;  and  she  failed  to  recover  in 
the  courts.  She  actually  caused  a  suit  in  equity  to 
be  brought  against  SpofTord  in  the  Superior  Court  at 
Salem, Mass., in  which  the  court  was  asked  to  issue  an 
injunction  to  restrain  Spofford  from  using  his  mind 
to  cause  the  illness  of  her  patient,  who  was  said  to 
suffer  physically  from  his  malicious  mental  activity. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  singular  pro- 
ceeding was  brought  in  the  same  jurisdiction  in  which, 
some  hundreds  of  years  ago,  certain  individuals  were 
arraigned  and  tried  for  the  crime  of  witchcraft,  found 
guilty  and  hanged  by  the  neck  until  they  were  dead. 

Mrs.  Eddy  acted  as  attorney  in  fact  for  the  plain- 
tiff in  this  suit  and  the  power  of  attorney  is  still  of 
record  in  the  case.  The  strange  bill  of  complaint  is 
as  follows: 

"  Humbly  complaining,  the  plaintiff,  Lucretia  L.  S. 
Brown  of  Ipswich,  in  said  County  of  Essex,  showeth 
unto  your  Honors,  that  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  of  New- 
bury port,  in  said  County  of  Essex,  the  defendant  in 
the  above  entitled  action,  is  a  mermerist  and  practices 
the  art  of  mesmerism  and  by  his  said  art  and  power 
of  his  mind  influences  and  controls  the  minds  and  bod- 
ies of  other  persons  and  uses  his  said  power  and  art 
for  the  purpose  of  injuring  the  persons  and  property 
and  social  relations  of  others  and  does  by  said  means 
so  injure  them. 

"And  the  plaintiff  further  showeth  that  the  said 
Daniel  H.  Spofford  has,  at  divers  times  and  places  since 
the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  vSeventy-five,  wrong- 
fully and  maliciously  and  with  intent  to  injure  the 
plaintiff,  caused  the  plaintiff  by  means  of  his  said 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         185 

power  and  art  great  suffering  of  body  and  mind  and 
severe  spinal  pains  and  neuralgia  and  a  temporary 
suspension  of  mind,  and  still  continues  to  caUvSe  the 
plaintiff  the  same.  And  the  plaintiff  has  reason  to 
fear  and  does  fear  that  he  will  continue  in  the  future 
to  cause  the  same.  And  the  plaintiff  says  that  said 
injuries  are  great  and  of  an  irreparable  nature  and 
that  she  is  wholly  unable  to  escape  from  the  control 
and  influence  he  so  exercises  upon  her  and  from  the 
aforesaid  effects  of  said  control  and  influence." 

Naturally  Mrs.  Eddy  could  find  no  lawyer  suffi- 
ciently besotted,  or  shameless,  to  argue  this  case  for 
her  when  it  came  up  for  hearing.  She  was  present 
and  such  argument  as  was  made  was  by  one  of  her  then 
dear  friends,  who  afterwards  became,  as  she  believed, 
one  of  her  dearest  foes;  but  upon  the  filing  of  the 
demurrer  by  Mr.  Spofford's  lawyer,  raising  the  legal 
point  that  the  bill  of  complaint  did  not  set  forth  any 
cause  of  action,  the  court  sustained  the  demurrer  and 
threw  the  case  out,  declaring  with  a  smile  that  it  was 
not  within  the  province  of  the  court  by  its  writ  of  in- 
junction to  control  the  operations  of  Mr.  Spofford's 
mind. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
hatred  of  Spofford,  she  wished  him  killed,  and  to  that 
end  instructed  her  students  to  sit  together  daily,  at 
noon  and  in  the  evening,  and  by  concerted  mental  con- 
centration hurl  disease  into  Mr.  Spofford. 

I  do  not  contend  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  or  Christian 
Scientists  or  others,  ever  killed  or  can  kill  or  afflict 
with  disease  any  other  person  by  absent  mental  treat- 
ment, and  one  of  my  strong  reasons  for  this  confident 


186  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

belief  is  that  I  am  still  permitted  to  walk  the  earth. 
I  only  seek  to  show  the  murderous  purpose  in  the 
heart  of  the  woman  who  is  pretending  to  be  the  voice 
of  God  to  this  age  and  the  equal  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Failing  in  her  effort  mentally  to  dispose  of  Spof- 
ford,  did  this  vindictive  woman  endeavor  to  accom- 
pHsh  her  purpose  by  any  other  method?  I  cannot 
precisely  say,  but  what  I  can  say  is  this:  In  December, 
1878,  after  a  hearing  in  the  Police  Court  in  Boston 
(in  which  one  of  the  witnesses  testified  she  had  heard 
Mrs.  Eddy  say  Spofford  was  a  bad  man  and  ought  to 
be  put  out  of  the  way) ,  by  which  they  were  held  for  the 
grand  jury  in  $3,000  bail,  and  after  an  examination 
by  the  Suffolk  grand  jury  of  some  six  or  eight 
witnesses,  one  Edward  J.  Arens,  and  one  Asa  G. 
Eddy,  third  husband  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  and 
then  living  with  her  as  her  husband,  were  duly 
indicted  for  a  conspiracy  to  commit  murder.  To 
commit  murder  upon  whom?  Upon  Daniel  H.  Spof- 
ford, the  same  Spofford  Mrs.  Eddy  had  soHcited  her 
followers  to  kill  by  mental  means. 

There  were  two  counts  in  the  indictment. 

The  first  read:  "That  Edward  J.  Arens  and  Asa 
G.  Eddy  of  Boston  aforesaid,  on  the  28th  day  of  July 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  seventy-eight,  Boston,  aforesaid,  with  Force  and 
Arms,  being  persons  of  evil  minds  and  dispositions 
did  then  and  there  unlawfully  conspire,  combine  and 
agree  together  feloniously,  wilfully,  and  of  their  mal- 
ice aforethought,  to  procure,  hire,  incite  and  soHcit, 
one  James  L.  Sargent,  for  a  certain  sum  of  money,  to 
wit,  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars,  to  be  paid  to  said 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         187 

Sargent  by  them,  said  Arens  and  Eddy,  feloniously, 
wilfully,  and  of  his,  said  Sargent's  malice  aforethought, 
in  some  way  and  manner  and  by  some  means,  instru- 
ments, and  weapons,  to  said  jurors  unknown,  one, 
Daniel  H.  Spofford,  to  kill  and  murder.  Against  the 
law,  peace  and  dignity  of  said  Commonwealth. 

What  connection  there  was  between  the  failure  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  efforts  to  kill  Spofford  or  to  have  him 
killed  by  mental  means  and  her  husband's  alleged 
efforts  to  have  him  killed  by  physical  means,  I  do  not 
positively  know.  I  did  not  hear  Mrs.  Eddy  say  to 
Mr.  Eddy:  Asa,  we  have  tried  and  tried  and  tried  to 
kill  that  man  Spofford,  but  he  is  a  tough  proposition, 
and  we  have  made  no  progress.  Now  you  pay  Sar- 
gent $500  to  lie  in  wait  for  him  with  a  club  and  we 
will  see  if  that  won't  settle  him.  That  was  the  charge 
against  Eddy.  Nothing  mental  about  the  club  form 
of  treatment!  I  did  not  hear  Mrs.  Eddy  say  that  to 
Eddy,  but  I  very  much  doubt  if  he  would  have  found 
himself  in  the  position  in  which  he  was  placed,  if  his 
dominating  helpmeet  had  offered  any  objection  to 
the  thing  of  which  he  was  accused.  I  do  not  know 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  knew  anything  about  Asa  G.  Eddy's 
undertaking  to  have  Spofford  killed;  but  I  do  know 
that  what  I  have  stated  is  true,  and  I  do  know  that 
the  human  mind  necessarily  makes  deductions  from 
circumstances ;  and  I  do  not  doubt  every  human  mind 
that  believes  the  facts  to  be  as  I  have  stated 
them,  will  make  the  same  deduction  that  my  mind 
makes. 

For  some  unexplained  reason  this  indictment  was 


188  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

never  prosecuted;  but,  upon  the  payment  of  costs  by 
Eddy,  was  nol  pressed.  There  was  no  disproof  of 
the  sworn  testimony  given  in  the  PoHce  Court.  Eddy 
never  asked  for  a  hearing,  he  never  insisted  upon  the 
vindication  only  a  trial  could  give.  He  put  his  hand 
into  his  pocket  and  paid  a  considerable  sum  to  escape 
a  trial ;  and  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  friends  call  that  a  vindi- 
cation. Does  an  innocent  man  accused  of  serious 
crime  pay  money  to  escape  a  trial,  or  does  he  demand 
a  full  hearing  and  establish  his  innocence? 

And  Spofiford  is  not  the  only  assumed  enemy  the 
good  "Mother"  of  Christian  Science  has  sought  to 
dispose  of  by  mental  murder.  Richard  Kennedy  and 
Clara  E.  Choate,  both  now  living  in  Boston,  and 
Edward  J.  Arens,  also  fell  under  the  ban  and  at  Mrs. 
Eddy's  instigation  received  so-called  mental  treat- 
ment designed  to  relieve  them  of  the  burden  of  the 
flesh  by  divers  diseases. 

Another  one  of  her  early  friends,  whom  Mrs.  Eddy 
ceased  to  love  and  grew  to  hate,  was  Richard  Kennedy. 
He  had  been  one  of  her  earliest  pupils,  studying  with 
her  when  she  lived  at  the  Wentworth  house  in  Stough- 
ton  in  the  sixties ;  and  they  had  carried  on  a  sort  of  co- 
partnership at  Lynn,  Mrs.  Eddy  doing  the  teaching 
and  Kennedy  the  healing. 

But  she  had  had  a  falling  out  with  Kennedy  as 
with  her  other  early  friends,  Spofford  and  Arens,  and 
she  had  dragged  him  into  court  as  she  had  dragged 
them.  Kennedy  was  a  young  man  and  an  easy  vic- 
tim. He  gave  Mrs.  Eddy  his  promissory  note  for  a 
thousand  dollars  for  her  teachings,  and  after  he  had 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         189 

paid  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  on  account  she 
brought  suit  against  him  for  the  balance,  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  but  again  she  lost  her  case. 
After  a  time,  somehow  or  other,  the  strange  notion 
got  into  Mrs.  Eddy's  head  that  Kennedy  was  the  most 
malicious  and  Satanic  of  all  her  enemies,  who  were,  by 
mental  means,  seeking  her  destruction.  He  was  the 
very  incarnation  of  the  mind's  hellish  power  in  its 
most  malignant  and  effective  form;  and  she  denounced 
him  in  the  following  lurid  language: 

"The  Nero  of  today,  regaling  himself  through  a 
mental  method  with  the  tortures  of  individuals,  is 
repeating  history  and  will  fall  upon  his  own  sword 
and  it  shall  pierce  him  through.  Let  him  remember 
this  when,  in  the  dark  recesses  of  thought,  he  is  rob- 
bing, committing  adultery,  and  killing;  when  he  is  at- 
tempting to  turn  friend  away  from  friend,  ruthlessly 
stabbing  the  quivering  heart;  when  he  is  chpping  the 
thread  of  hfe,  and  giving  to  the  grave  youth  and  its 
rainbow  hues;  when  he  is  turning  back  the  reviving 
sufferer  to  her  bed  of  pain,  clouding  her  first  morning 
after  years  of  night;  and  the  Nemesis  of  that  hour 
shall  point  to  the  tyrant's  fate,  who  falls  at  length 
upon  the  sword  of  justice." 

And  in  one  of  the  editions  of  her  book  Mrs.  Eddy 
went  so  far  as  to  expressly  accuse  Kennedy  of  the 
crime  of  murder  in  the  following  extraordinary  lan- 
guage: 

"The  husband  of  a  lady  who  was  the  patient  of 
this  malpractitioner  poured  out  his  grief  to  us  and 

said:  'Dr.  K has  destroyed  the  happiness  of  my 

home,  ruined  my  wife,'  etc. ;  and,  after  that,  he  finished 
with  a  double  crime  by  destroying  the  health  of  that 


190  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

wronged  husband  so  that  he  died.  We  say  that  he 
did  these  things  because  we  have  as  much  evidence  of 
it  as  ever  we  had  of  the  existence  of  any  sin.  The 
symptoms  and  circumstances  of  the  cases,  and  the 
diagnosis  of  their  diseases  proved  the  unmistakable 
fact.  His  career  of  crime  surpasses  anything  that 
minds  in  general  can  accept  at  this  period.  We  ad- 
vised him  to  marry  a  young  lady  whose  affection  he 
had  won,  but  he  refused ;  subsequently  she  was  wedded 
to  a  nice  young  man,  and  then  he  aHenated  her  affec- 
tions from  her  husband." 

All  of  this,  of  course,  by  absent  mental  treatment! 

It  is  a  matter  of  record  in  the  Superior  Court  of  the 
State  of  New  Hampshire,  by  sworn  testimony,  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  sought  to  relieve  herself  of  the  imagined 
malicious  mental  treatment  of  Mr.  Kennedy  by  in- 
structing her  friends  to  sit  together  at  stated  times 
daily  and,  holding  his  lungs  in  a  diseased  condition 
in  their  minds,  hurl  consumption  at  him  with  all 
the  power  of  concentrated  malevolent  thought. 

Kennedy,  who  is  living  today,  and  with  whom 
I  am  well  acquainted,  is  as  gentle  and  kindly  a  person 
as  can  be  imagined;  and,  while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  working 
herself  into  a  frenzy  over  his  supposed  malignity,  and 
having  consumption  mentally  hurled  at  him,  was  pur- 
suing the  even  tenor  of  his  way  without  thought  of  her 
except  as  an  occasional  memory  of  a  bitter  experience. 
Mrs.  Eddy  hated  Kennedy  as  she  hated  Spofford,  and 
she  wanted  Kennedy  killed  as  she  wanted  Spofford 
killed;  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Spofford,  she  solicited 
her  friends  and  students  to  undertake  by  mental 
cooperation  to  terminate  his  mundane  career. 


THE    EDDY    BAN    ON    MARRIAGfi  l9l 

It  may  relieve  the  minds  of  some  to  know  that  Mrs. 
Eddy's  kindly  purpose  did  not  succeed  with  any  of 
the  persons  whose  illness  was  sought,  as  I  have  re- 
lated. Spofford,  Kennedy  and  Mrs.  Choate  did  not 
succumb  to  the  malicious  absent  treatment,  but  are 
still  present  with  us  in  the  flesh.  Arens  died,  I  am 
told,  but  some  time  after  Mrs.  Eddy  had  given  him 
up  as  hopelessly  tenacious  of  life. 

But  one  more  incident  and  I  have  done  —  I  have 
kept  the  worst  until  the  last. 

A  sad  and  tragic  episode  in  connection  with  the 
litigation  instituted  by  her  sons  in  reference  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  mental  condition,  was  the  suicide  at  the  Parker 
House,  in  Boston,  on  April  20,  1907,  of  Miss  Mary  C. 
TomHnson,  sister  of  Irving  C.  Tomlinson,  a  former 
UniversaHst  minister,  but  then  and  now  a  Christian 
Science  healer,  and  of  Rev.  Vincent  Tomlinson,  a 
UniversaHst  minister  of  Worcester,  Mass.  Miss  Tom- 
linson had  Hved  with  her  brother  Irving  at  Concord, 
N.H.,  and  had  been  a  Reader  in  the  Christian  Science 
Church  there  and  an  ardent  disciple  of  Christian 
Science  and  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  being  much  in  company 
with  her  and  absolutely  devoted  to  her  service.  After 
the  law  suit  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  sons  began,  all  the  closest 
friends  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  Concord  (as  well  as  elsewhere) 
were  called  upon  to  defend  her  from  the  attack,  and, 
by  the  pecuHar  method  of  absent  and  silent  mental 
treatment,  both  Mr.  Glover  and  his  senior  counsel,  Mr. 
Chandler,  were  pressed  by  the  so-called  "workers"  to 
the  utmost  of  the  powers  they  supposed  themselves 
to  possess. 


192  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Miss  Mary  C.  Tomlinson  was  not  in  the  least  degrei 
unwilling  to  exercise  her  powers  of  absent  treating  o 
persons  in  order  to  repel  the  Stetson  argument;  no 
even  unwilling  to  treat  Glover  and  Chandler  in  thi 
ordinary  way,  trying  to  make  them  abandon  th 
lawsuit;  but  when  the  decision  was  made  at  Concord 
to  treat  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  son  and  his  lawyer  in  hostil 
fashion  —  by  sending  arsenical  poison  into  their  veins 
or  otherwise  putting  them  to  death,  Miss  Tomlinson' 
whole  nature  revolted.  She  had  impHcit  faith  ii 
Christian  Science,  she  worshiped  Mrs.  Eddy,  sh 
believed  in  the  existence  of  malicious  animal  magnet 
isra  and  its  devilish  power  and  in  the  methods  o 
counter- working  to  prevent  its  evil  work ;  but  she  ha< 
never  before  seen  an  attempt  made  to  use  absen 
treatment  diabolically  —  by  putting  to  death  th 
enemies  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist.  When  sh 
opened  her  eyes  to  the  enormity  to  be  practised  in  th 
name  of  a  revengeful  church,  her  mind  revolted.  Sh 
determined  to  leave  Concord,  to  renounce  Mrs.  Edd; 
and  all  her  works  and  to  denounce  the  system  t' 
which  she  had  been  so  earnest  a  servant.  Indeed  th 
intense  revulsion  of  feeling  seems  to  have  upset  he 
mental  balance.  Following  up  her  determinatior 
she  went  to  Boston  on  April  19  and  wandered  aboul 
uncertain  what  to  do  with  herself,  at  last  finding  he 
way  to  the  Parker  House  in  the  hands  of  a  Christiai 
Scientist,  where  her  two  brothers,  being  telegraphe( 
for,  came  to  take  charge  of  her. 

Here  the  tragedy  begins.  The  Parker  Hous 
manager  wished  her  to  be  seen  by  Dr.  Payne,  the  hote 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRtAGE         193 

physician ;  but  did  not  succeed  in  getting  him  admis- 
sion to  her  rooms.  He  did,  however,  send  to  her  a 
nurse  from  Boothby  Hospital,  a  Miss  Telfair,  who 
arrived  about  nine  p.  m.  Later,  Mr.  Vincent  Tomhnson, 
the  Universalist  minister,  came  and  with  the  nurse 
took  charge  of  his  sister. 

About  eleven  o'clock  Mr.  Irving  C.  Tomlinson,  the 
Christian  Science  healer,  arrived  and  at  once  took 
controlling  charge  of  Miss  Tomlinson  —  saying  that 
he  understood  the  case  and  knew  what  to  do.  Mr. 
Vincent  Tomlinson  left  the  rooms  and  took  a  room 
down  the  corridor  which  his  brother  had  engaged. 
The  nurse  was  not  allowed  to  stay  in  the  room  with 
Miss  Tomlinson  but  was  placed  out  in  the  corridor, 
while  Mr.  Irving  Tomlinson  took  off  his  shoes  and 
coat  and  laid  down  in  a  connecting  room.  About 
one  o'clock  in  the  morning  there  was  the  sound  of  a 
window  being  raised  in  Miss  Tomlinson 's  room  and 
the  nurse  entered  quickly  from  the  corridor  as  Irving 
came  in  from  his  room.  They  found  she  had  opened 
the  window,  and  she  said  to  Irving,  when  he  remon- 
strated, that  she  wanted  to  look  out.  They  induced 
her  to  go  back  to  bed  and  Irving  then  locked  on  the 
inside  the  door  from  her  room  into  the  corridor  and 
took  out  the  key  and  kept  it.  Miss  Telfair  went  into 
the  corridor  again  and  Irving  went  into  his  own  room. 
About  three  a.m.,  Miss  Telfair  heard  the  door  connect- 
ing with  Irving's  room  shut  and  locked  by  Miss  Tom- 
linson. Again  she  heard  the  widow  opened,  but, 
having  been  locked  out,  could  not  get  to  Miss  Tom- 
linson.    She  called  for  the  porter  and  they  finally  got 


194  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

into  Miss  Tomlinson's  room  by  breaking  down  the 
door  connecting  it  with  Irving's.  They  found  the 
window  wide  open  and  the  room  empty.  Miss  Tom- 
Unson  had  thrown  herself  down  four  stories  to  the 
street.  She  was  brought  back  to  her  room,  but 
never  spoke,  and  died  about  five  a.m. 

She  had  worshiped  Mrs.  Eddy,  She  had  been 
one  of  the  most  devoted  of  her  disciples,  and  when 
she  came  to  a  realization  of  the  infamies  being  prac- 
tised in  the  name  of  Christ,  life  lost  every  ray  of 
light  and  every  particle  of  charm,  and  she  dashed 
herself  to  death  upon  the  stones  of  the  streets  of 
Boston. 

Small  matter  for  wonder  that,  when  the  bruised 
and  mangled  body  had  been  carried  to  the  chamber 
Miss  Tomlinson  had  occupied,  the  UniversaHst  minis- 
ter, standing  by  his  dead  sister,  should  solemnly  say 
to  his  brother,  the  renegade  Universahst  minister, 
the  Christian  Science  healer,  "Irving,  the  blood  of  our 
sister  is  upon  the  skirts  of  Mrs.  Eddy!" 

The  story  is  now  completely  told.  Of  those  who 
have  followed  me  to  the  end,  I  ask,  was  it  incumbent 
upon  me,  knowing  the  facts  as  I  know  them  and  as  I 
have  here  presented  them,  to  crowd  them  down  into 
my  soul  and  by  suppressing  them  become  a  party  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  monstrous  imposition?  Just  because  the 
author  of  all  of  this  fraud,  falsehood,  hypocrisy,  blas- 
phemy and  attempted  crime  is  a  woman,  now  an  aged 
woman,  should  I  therefore  stand  silently  by  and  per- 
mit her  longer  to  masquerade  before  mankind  as  like 
unto  the  pure  and  holy  Jesus?     I  think  not.     That 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         195 

has  not  seemed  to  me  to  be  my  duty  in  the  matter. 
I  have  done  my  duty  as  I  have  seen  it,  and  I  will 
stand  by  the  position  taken  and  the  facts  affirmed. 

Is  it  possible  for  any  decent  person,  man  or  woman, 
to  peruse  this  book  and  then  acknowledge  himself  or 
herself  a  disciple  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy?  Is  it  con- 
ceivable that  any  sane  man  or  woman,  with  full 
knowledge  of  the  facts  of  her  Hfe,  can  honestly  pro- 
fess belief  in  her  disgusting  imposture  ?  Can  any  one 
who  feels,  as  I  do,  that  Jesus  is  the  common  glory  of 
all  who  bear  a  human  heart,  without  resentment  and 
without  anger  witness  the  endeavor  of  this  vulgar 
creature  to  place  herself  by  His  side  ?  Can  any  devout 
Christian  have  any  other  feeling  than  one  of  abhor- 
rence for  the  blasphemous  woman  and  the  bunco 
game  she  dares  to  say  is  "authorized  by  Christ"? 

If  I  have  made  good,  if  I  have  accompHshed  what 
I  set  out  to  accomplish,  I  ask  every  man  and  every 
woman  who  reads  this  book  to  lose  no  opportunity  to 
show  this  hateful  thing,  miscalled  Christian  Science, 
in  its  true  light  to  those  with  whom  they  come  in  con- 
tact. Let  it  have  no  quarter.  Hit  it  every  time  you 
have  a  chance  and  hit  it  as  hard  as  you  can.  It  is  not 
entitled  to  respectful  treatment.  Nothing  is  more 
impossible  than  to  love  Jesus,  even  a  little,  and  to  have 
the  slightest,  the  very  slightest,  tolerance  for  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  her  frauds. 

A  Christian  Science  speaker  recently,  in  a  suburb 
of  Boston,  in  concluding  an  address  exhorted  her 
hearers  to  "follow  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  follows 
the   Saviour."     Not  follow  the   Saviour,   but  follow 


196  THE    RELIGIO-MEDICAL    MASQUERADE 

Mrs.  Eddy  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  way  of  following  the 
Saviour. 

As  Mrs.  Eddy  follows  the  Saviour? 

By  faking  a  revelation  from  God?  By  stealing 
the  ideas  of  another  and  ascribing  them  to  God's 
voice  in  her  private  ear?  By  putting  on  the  cloak  of 
reHgion  in  order  to  pick  the  pockets  of  those  whose 
hands  are  clasped  in  prayer?  By  copyrighting  a  "re- 
ligion," and  suing  those  who  infringe  her  coypright? 
By  fixing,  under  the  pretended  guidance  of  God,  upon 
the  extortionate  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars  for  twelve 
lessons  in  "the  divine  power  that  heals"?  By  in- 
voking the  aid  of  the  courts  to  compel  poor  creatures 
to  pay  her,  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  dollars  per  hour, 
for  telling  them  of  God,  and  His  Christ?  By  organiz- 
ing a  church  in  which  membership  is  made  dependent 
upon  activity  in  the  sale  of  her  puerile  and  profitable 
wares?  By  denouncing  as  vile  debauchery  the 
sweetest  and  purest  and  noblest  relation  of  men  and 
women?  By  declaring  the  children,  in  whom  our 
souls  deHght,  to  be  the  offspring  of  "legaUzed  lust"? 
By  refusing  to  put  forth  her  professed  Godlike  power 
to  soothe  any  pain,  even  that  of  the  sister  she  loved, 
to  save  any  life,  even  that  of  her  own  grandchild? 
By  constituting  herself  the  veritable  autocrat  of  the 
Bedlamites  and  reigning  with  despotic  sway  over  the 
multitudes  of  her  self-abased  dupes?  By  never 
telling  the  truth,  unless  there  was  money  in  it,  and 
never  hesitating  at  a  lie  that  would  add  one  simple 
soul  to  the  number  of  her  victims  or  one  soiled  dollar 
to  her  bulging  exchequer?     By  living  a  Hfe  of  un- 


THE  EDDY  BAN  ON  MARRIAGE         197 

varying  deception  and  uncleanness,  and  professing, 
with  eyes  rolled  heavenward,  to  be  "as  pure  as  the 
angels"?  By  seeking,  with  Satanic  zeal  and  hatred, 
the  destruction  of  her  fancied  enemies,  through  the 
attempted  mental  infliction  of  disease  and  suffering 
and  death? 

As  Mrs.  Eddy  follows  the  Saviour? 

Not  thus,  not  thus,  O  Saviour  of  mankind!  not 
thus  have  followed  in  the  royal  road  which  thou  hast 
trod  ages  of  worshipers! 


Date  Due 

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